Nobody Will Know
by dlahm17
Summary: As Harry's son enters Hogwarts he has high hopes. Little does he know that his father is chasing down ex-death eaters who are desperate to find revenge at the Boy Who Lived. And first on their agenda is his son. Follow Albus' misadventures at Hogwarts as his father races against time, and secrets unfold. Takes place at the end of 7th book, relates to canon as exactly as possible.
1. The hogwarts train

Albus Potter felt the train thrum beneath his seat, his parents beginning to grow faint in the distance and embrace each other. He sighed as his first day at Hogwarts was tomorrow, and the train was taking him off to the enchanted castle; away from his parents for the first time.

The legendary Harry Potter was his father, his mother being Ginny Potter, both of them were heroes of the wizarding world. Harry Potter was a name that everyone has known since he defeated the dark lord Voldemort, and Voldemort has been gone for over thirteen years.

"Hey Albus, don't land yourself in Slytherin now, we wouldn't want to have to hate you."

This voice came from Albus' brother: James, the joker of the Potter family. Though from what Albus's father had told them, he was nowhere close to the level of the Weasley twin's joking demeanors. Though the twins are now only singular, George, was the only surviving member of the twins after the battle for Hogwarts.

"Stop it, James." Albus replied, setting his trunk down under his train seat.

"Well, don't worry, little bro. You have to be in Gryffindor, our father is the Harry Potter. There's no possible way we can be in anything else, the house will normally be kept in families."

James smiled brotherly at Albus, putting an arm on his shoulder and sitting him down, "Just enjoy the train ride and keep a sickle on hand, the trolley lady has a lot of sweets."

"Thanks, do you have any other advice for me, James?"

"Yeah, don't annoy the acromantulas or the centaurs, they will not hesitate to kill you."

And with that, James left the compartment.

Albus heard the compartment door close behind James and he sat down in the cushiony seats, alone, ready to fall asleep on the long ride to Hogwarts.

He slept for a few hours before being awoken by a knock on the compartment door, "Hello? Is there anybody in this compartment? I have candy from the trolley lady. Albus groaned as he stretched his limbs after waking, "Yeah, you can come in, there's room." And in walked Rose, Ron Weasley and Hermoine Granger's daughter.

"Hey Albus," she said shyly, "There really wasn't much room left in the other areas, everyone else already has their friends groups made."

Not only had Rose inherited her mother's brains, but her bushy hair and teeth too, those things were second only to a beaver. So Albus understood immediately why she was rejected from everywhere else, their pride wouldn't allow them to talk to her.

"Yeah, no problem. So any ideas on the house you'll be in?"

Rose wasted no time in answering: "Gryffindor, just like my mom and dad"

"Same", Albus replied, "My dad even told me that you can ask the sorting hat to allow you into different houses, he said that he did it when he was being sorted."

Rose's curiosity was instantly pricked, "Really, but isn't the hat supposed to be impartial? It says so in the Hogwarts a History I inherited from my mom."

Albus shrugged, it was no matter to him whether the hat heard him or not, he just needed to be in Gryffindor. "I don't know, but don't you think that book might be a bit dated?"

At this point another kid walked into the room, "HEY, STOP THAT!" He didn't walk in so much as being pushed in, and fell onto the floor. From the blond hair it was instantly recognizable who it is, Scorpius Malfoy, Draco's son.

Albus instantly jumped up and yanked out the only thing he could grab, which was his wand that he just got. Twelve inches long, made of willow, and with a dragon's heartstring to power it; this wand resonated power whenever Albus held it. And he held it straight out, pointed at the two Hufflepuff fifth years who had pushed Scorpius in.

"What's the big idea?"

Scorpius got to his feet and pulled out his mahogany wand, "Yeah, what was that for?"

The two Hufflepuffs sneered at the first years, "Just remember who your grandfather was, filth." And they left, slamming the compartment door shut as they went.

Rose got up and put both Albus' and Scorpius' wands down, "Calm down now, they're gone."

The two first years looked at each other and finally recognized them, "Wait aren't you-"they said simultaneously. Scorpius stuffed away his wand, "Albus Potter, it's nice to meet you. Your father saved mine's life on more than one occasion, I've heard a lot about him."

"Many have," Albus countered without putting his wand away, having also heard of Scorpius' father and grandfather: Draco Malfoy, and Lucius Malfoy. One of which had been Voldemort's right hand man, and the other was almost going to follow him before wising up. Not that Albus didn't remember Harry's stories of how Draco had been the infamous school bully of Slytherin House.

"Look," Scorpius started, "I know how you think that my father is a person who is concerned with blood over bravery, but I never knew that part of him. I had heard that he was like that, but never met him when he was like that, it seems to me that he changed. Also, I grew up without that influence, I don't care that her mother was a muggleborn." He pointed at Rose who had been watching the exchange excitedly.

"Alright," Albus finally put away his wand, "Don't worry, a guy isn't his father, he's himself. But don't act like your old man, I wouldn't want to have to hate you. You seem like an okay guy."


	2. Sorting

"Hey, can everyone see me? Hear me? Excellent!" The speaker was one of the teachers at Hogwarts, the right hand man to the Headmistress Minerva Mcgonagall: Professor Longbottom.

"Behind these doors is Hogwarts School, you will wait until the doors open to follow me into the great hall and wait to be sorted into the different houses. I am, in fact, the head of Gryffindor house."

Neville Longbottom, as Albus had heard before, was one of his father's friends when Harry was in Hogwarts. Neville had fought bravely at the Battle for Hogwarts destroying Nagini the snake, and married Luna Lovegood afterwards. He was now the Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher, but worked closely with Professor Sprout in herbology.

"Do you know what houses we'll be in?" Piped up Scorpius, who was practically shaking in his robes.

"No," Professor Longbottom replied, "Nobody knows until they put on the sorting hat, but the house will often stay in the bloodline."

Scorpius groaned, "perfect," he said sarcastically to Albus and Rose, "I hope to God that I'm not in Slytherin, I would be teased straight out of the school."

"Don't worry," Rose whispered back, I don't think you'll be in Slytherin. You're way too nice for that, I heard that the Slytherins are mean."

Professor Longbottom left and a babble of talk broke out in the hall as all the first years started talking about the sorting.

"I heard that you will have to endure some sort of a curse!" Yelled out one of the girls.

"That's stupid, you heard the teacher, it's just a hat. Odds are that you're going into Hufflepuff, clearly have no brains." A boy in the back responded.

"And where will you be?"

"Ravenclaw, the smartest of all the Houses, and from what my brother told me: the house that's won both the quidditch cup and house cup three years running."

The boy in the back sat down as he finished his statement and opened a book. As if by some random coincidence, Professor Longbottom returned at that very moment and opened the doors to the Great Hall.

The trio walked in together staring at the beauty of the Hall. Flying candles lit the room as they zoomed across the sky, often forming elaborate flight patterns in formation. Above each of the four tables in the Hall danced a different colored flame representing the house. Ghosts were seated every so often at the house tables, often floating through the tables themselves to talk with a fellow ghost.

The boy who believed himself to be already a Ravenclaw was left behind as he hastily tried to stow his book in his robe. "Hey! Wait up!"

Albus noticed James sitting at the Gryffindor table, and he waved. James waved back and mimed putting on the hat, mouthing the words 'don't be in Slytherin'. He then turned back and laughed with his friends as one of them made a joke.

Professor Longbottom stopped in the middle of the hall and motioned for the first years to do the same. In front of them was a stool presenting a ratty old pointed hat, this hat must have been older than the school itself from how tattered it was.

This must have been the sorting hat, the thing that will decide what their friends and families will be for the next seven years. Such a little thing to be making such a major decision, Albus thought to himself and, unknowingly to him; his two friends were mirroring his thoughts exactly.

Suddenly, a rip opened in the brim of the cap, making it look like it was smiling, and it began to quote:

" _My tattered state_

 _And Deadly smile_

 _Can make most folks feel bleak._

 _Though the history_

 _Behind this grin_

 _Makes most others feel weak._

 _The Hogwarts Four they had me here_

 _Ready to be just._

 _With a bit of brains to help_

 _For sorting, I must._

 _These four houses require new_

 _Blood with all its worth,_

 _And my job, as you can see,_

 _Is sort you while you're first._

 _The years have past, yet we've survived_

 _Talent For talent's sake_

 _Though many fought, and many died_

 _Their wounds were not in vain._

 _Now place me on your noggin,_

 _And I'll see what I can see._

 _And place you where you belong_

 _The Home where you ought to be._

 _Be it Gryffindor, for those of Brave_

 _Ravenclaw for Mind_

 _Slythering for Tenacity_

 _And Hufflepuff for Kind._

 _These houses four, are now for you_

 _So I will tell you this._

 _For these houses now are to you_

 _A family._

 _Let's begin."_

Albus clapped with the rest of the houses, the Hat's poem was quite good, he obviously had put thought into it. Scorpius, who was standing next to Albus, shivered as he heard the Sorting Hat's prose. The lines about family and home had really stuck to him, driving through his mind like a nail in a coffin, paling Scorpius' already white face.

Rose, who was also next to Albus, was shaking with excitement. To her, this was a new beginning away from all the uncles and aunts who constantly had to visit. Away from her Grandmother who was always fussing over how her Godfather was Harry Potter, and how she was one of the most caring figures in his life. It was just based on her performance, not her bloodline.

Up in front of the sorting hat, Professor Longbottom stood up with a scroll. It unfurled of its own accord and hung in front of him. "As you hear your name, please walk up and place the hat on your head. Devon Arinade."

"Hey, Scorpius?" Albus whispered, "You okay?"

Scorpius was whiter than even his hair, looking more like a bone than anything.

The Hufflepuff House cheered and broke the silence as Devon was made a Hufflepuff, and Devon looked relieved more than anything. Albus swore he even saw a darker patch grow over Devon's robes as the stress got to him.

"No, I'm fine." Scorpius replied, watching Devon walk to his house and shake his prefect's hand, sitting with a few Hufflepuff second years who had a few seats next to them open.

The names went onwards and onwards; Crawsin Heavor was made a Slytherin, Rebecca (who told the Professor she preferred to be called Becky) Jenil walked buoyantly over to the Ravenclaw table, Gerald Lenteel was made Ravenclaw as well.

Then it was Scorpius' turn, "Scorpius Malfoy." Professor Longbottom called out to the Hall. Instantly boos erupted, jeering at Scorpius from all sides. "Go back to your Grandfather, traitor!" people yelled at him. Scorpius tried to ignore the jeers by hurrying to the hat and jamming it on his head, instantly the hat yelled out to the whole of the hall: "GRYFFINDOR!" Quieting most of the jeering students instantly.

Then came Albus' turn, he walked up to the cap and set it on his head. " _Ah, the apple never falls far from the tree"_ , he heard in his mind. "I choose Gryffindor, please." Albus whispered.

" _I see your father taught you an old trick, you are now in_ GRYFFINDOR!" The hat yelled out the choice to the entirety of the school, who expected nothing less from the son of Harry Potter, and clapped enthusiastically as Albus took his place among the other Gryffindors and Scorpius.

After both Scorpius and Albus, with a few other students in between, it was time for Rose. "Rose, Weasley!" Professor Longbottom yelled, and Rose walked up to the Sorting Hat, settling it on her bushy hair. The sorting hat took a very long time to choose what she would be, but in the end there was only one real choice he could make: "GRYFFINDOR!"

Rose set the hat back down delicately and walked over to sit down with Scorpius and Albus, the latter of the two was trying to get his brother's attention and rub it in that he wasn't in Slytherin. "Good job, Rose." Scorpius said as Albus tried to wave at James, who, in turn, was busy trying to show off to a third year girl.

"I just kept wanting to be with my friends, and the hat told me that there was a fine decision to be made, and despite my brains I would be just like my mother." Rose told Scorpius.

The three of them continued to talk as the sorting continued onwards, and once the final first year had been placed in a house, the headmistress of Hogwarts stood up from the staff table and made a speech. Minerva Mcgonagall, now somewhat more aged; but still very impressive, stood up: "Welcome one and all to Hogwarts, and to those returning I am happy to see you once again. This year is like all the others, forbidden forest is out of bounds, quidditch tryouts are to be posted on the boards in dormitories, and Filch… is Filch."

The elderly caretaker glared at Mcgonagall from the back of the Hall, stroking the cat he called: Mrs. Norris.

"There is only one change this year, and that is that the famous Auror Harry Potter will be visiting sometime during the year to teach a class on high level defense methods. This class will only be open to fifth years and above, and there will not be a sign-up sheet, you must pay attention to notice when he is here and ask him. This is entirely on his own decisions, so make sure you do well. That is all"

When she finished, food magically appeared on the table in front of the students, filling the plates with all they could ever imagine. Throughout the hall a babble broke out as students would ask their friends how their summer was and how amazing this year would be with Harry Potter coming to visit them.

Rose, Scorpius, and Albus ate and talked with their fellow first years about magic: "There is really so much to be had here in the school." A second year was telling the first years, "Though do be careful, not every magic is harmless. And every magical creature can be harmful, especially if you are ignorant of them. I even heard that a teacher was dragged off sixteen years ago by centaurs and was traumatized for life."

When the feast was over, the first years were guided up the staircases by the prefects and introduced to their dormitories. Albus wasn't paying attention though, as he had way too much to eat of the cakes, and simply passed out the second he saw his bed.


	3. Peeves

Albus woke up and looked around the dormitory that he hadn't exactly noticed the day before, partially due to those amazing vanilla cakes he had yesterday. It was clean and nice, with the four poster beds surrounding a carpet, Albus heard snores coming from the other beds, so he assumed the other first year boys were still asleep.

The black haired first year, however, rolled over and off his bed, opened his trunk (which he didn't remember bringing up), and got on some clothes and robes. At this point, adrenaline began pumping through his body; this was his first day at Hogwarts, he's going to learn how to be as great of a wizard as his father was. On top of his clothes was a schedule for his classes and he looked through it while sticking on his clothes.

7:30-9:00, Breakfast and Mail

9:00-10:00, Beginners potions: P. Slughorn, dungeons

10:00-11:00, Beginners transfiguration: P. Filen, class 1

11:00-11:15, break

And so on the schedule went until:

7:00-8:00 pm, free time

8:00, curfew

Midnight, astronomy: P. Sinistra, astronomy tower, Wednesdays only

As Albus read through the course schedule the snores to his right had stopped and another first year named Edward Mathner got up rubbing his eyes. Edward, as Albus had realized yesterday, was more of a bookworm than he had even seen in his father's friend: Hermoine, or her daughter: Rose. Just he wasn't a fun bookworm like them, he was just mostly boring.

"-ood -orning, Albus", Edward managed out through his yawn. On his chest, a book with an intricate cover design was slidding down his sheets. Some late night reading material perhaps?

"Morning Edward," Albus said, tucking his schedule into the insides of his robes and sliding on shoes, "How did you sleep?"

Edward did not appear to hear Albus, but another snore alerted him to the fact that Edward had already fallen asleep again, now with the book over his face. Albus sighed and started to meander down towards the common room, now sticking on a watch he had gotten as a present from his father 4 years ago.

Nobody appeared to be in the common room, so Albus opened up the portrait of the Fat Lady and walked out. "OH, wait!" he heard behind him as the portrait started to close. Albus turned around only to see the Fat Lady calling to him, "Yes?" he asked.

"Oh, tell your father I say hi!" She spouted off, "It's been so long since we've seen him in here, so send him a letter telling him that the Fat Lady will always allow him to sleep in Gryffindor Common room."

Albus gave her a smile and thumbs up, then turned to go get some breakfast in the Great Hall. Despite the fact that he had such a large dinner last night, his stomach was growling pleasantly as he smelled the delicious aromas drifting up the stairs from the Great Hall.

He followed his nose down the stairs, until something stopped him, and by stop him: he smacked face first into an archway. "Ow!" Albus said, holding his nose, "What's the big idea?". He pushed on the archway's apparently solid opening, trying to find out what was stopping him from using it.

Then he felt something hit his neck, reaching back and touching it, he realized it was a drop of ink. "Peeves," Albus whispered to himself, the stories he had heard about Peeves were absolutely revolting; normally ending with the victim getting pranked for years on end. Albus whipped around and looked for the Poltergeist, secretly slipping on a glove when he did so.

It was not hard to see him, the wicked semi-transparent man was floating not five feet away from Albus' face with a straw in hand that had ink dripping from it. "Whoops! Clumsy me, didn't your father ever tell you to look out for me?"

"Yeah, he did." Albus replied, now putting on a second glove that he had been keeping in his pant's pocket.

Peeves made to move upwards, and Albus pulled out his wand and pointed it at Peeves. "Don't even think about it."

Peeves turned upside down in the air and stared at the first year, "what could you do to me?" he said. Before Albus was able to answer Peeves rushed upwards towards the ceiling where a large water balloon was hanging precariously. Peeves snapped the rope connecting it to the ceiling and it fell, the distance betraying it as it was now much larger than before, easily as big as Albus.

Albus couldn't do anything, there wouldn't have been enough time, so he just stood there and looked at Peeves who had flown around to stare at the mayhem he was about to cause.

The massive balloon fell straight onto Albus' head and burst open, spraying ink all over the staircases and tapestries. Causing painting people to run for cover as their portraits were dirtied.

Peeves laughed insanely, it was the first major prank of the school year, and it was a total success. That kid had to be as black as his hair, just he wasn't.

Albus was standing in the middle of a massive ink stain, completely dry. "B-B-But?" Peeves stuttered as his beautiful prank was ruined.

"Bloody Hell, Peeves. This will get you kicked out for sure!" that voice belonged to the caretaker, Argus Filch, who had smelled Peeves' mischief before it happened and hurried over. "You've gone and done it, Mcgonagall will be forced to throw you out."

While all hell broke loose around him, Albus simply walked off to the Great Hall as Peeves stared at him. Albus even waved to Peeves as he left, now pulling off the shield gloves he had gotten at his uncle George's joke shop. "Have fun, Peeves." Albus said while he left.


	4. Waking moments

Scorpius woke up peacefully, sun streaming in through the window next to his four poster bed. It was all calm, Edward snoring away to his left, hippogriffs flying above the forbidden forest, and someone in the common room crying. Wait- wha?

Someone in the Gryffindor common room was crying, their sobs reached Scorpius even while he was in his dormitory.

"First day of school, this is a great start", Scorpius grumbled as he put on his own robes. "Hey, Albus, are you awake?"

Albus didn't answer.

"Are you up here?"

Once again there was silence from Albus' bed. Scorpius took a look at the bed, and seeing no lump indicating a sleeping Albus, walked down the stairs to the common room.

There was a few people in the common room; most ignoring the sobbing girl in a corner. But Rose was also awake, trying to comfort what should be a first year girl, but instead looked like a puddle.

"It's fine, you're fine. Don't worry." She was saying to the puddle-girl. Through her sobs the first year looked up at Rhose and told her: " _sob_ but it won't be, _sob_ , my friends are all in _sob_ _Hufflepuff, and I'm_ in Gryffindor! There's nothing I can do now, I won't have any friends!"

Rose looked at her with concern, "Remember that speech the hat said yesterday?" Rose tried to say to the girl, "we're all family here, and we'll be your friends now".

All that did was cause the girl to cry harder. Scorpius walked over and told Rose that "she isn't going to stop, you can only give her time to think. Eventually everyone runs out of tears."

Rose nodded and stood up, dusting off her black robes. "Let's go meet up with Albus, I heard he went to breakfast early." Scorpius agreed, and they started out to the Great Hall.

While walking down the stairs, Peeves rushed by them spraying ink everywhere from a straw and being chased by Filch. Peeves would randomly turn around and shoot a few splotches of ink at Filch, most times landing on Mrs. Norris, who was furiously licking off the ink.

"Wonder what that's about?" Scorpius asked Rose.

Rose watched the chase progress up the grand staircase. "Well Peeves has always had a war with the current caretaker of Hogwarts ever since Hankerton Humble in c. 900. I read it in my Hogwarts a History book."

Scorpius looked at her in shock, who reads that much anymore?

Well with that aside, they walked down to the Great Hall, noticing Albus sitting at Gryffindor table.

"Hey Albus," they greeted him with.

"Hey guys, how did you sleep?"

Scorpius gestured for Rose to go first.

"Oh, thanks Scorpius," she said, "I slept great, even with being really excited for today. We're finally starting classes!"

Rose's excitement began to spread to Scorpius.

"I slept well too, Edward kept me up a bit with his snoring, but otherwise there was nothing bad."

Rose and Scorpius sat down on either side of Albus and grabbed some food. They were just starting to enjoy some pancakes when a sausage flew through the air and landed squarely on Scorpius' back.

As it slid off, a grease stain remained behind, matching the texture of Scorpius' hair perfectly.

"I forgot." Scorpius told the other two miserably, "I'm not welcome here." He set down his fork and knife, "I'm not hungry anymore guys, sorry."

"GO BACK TO YOUR GRANDFATHER, SCUMBAG!" Yelled a Hufflepuff from across the Hall, earning himself a death stare from a few of the teachers.

If you had been in the trophy room at the time, you would've noticed a few gems shaking in the bottom of Hufflepuff's hourglass, kind of like they wanted to go farther down. But as it was, no house had earned any points yet, so the gems merely stayed in the bottom of the hourglass.

At that moment, the owls flew in through the opening in the Great Hall. And most of the first years gasped as they came in, it was a magnificent sight: seeing every kind of owl fly in at once. Snowy owls flapping massive white wings complemented by miniature screech owls who were zipping in between the wings of larger eagle owls. And all of the owls carrying some sort of package.

Across the hall from Albus, Scorpius, and Rose, a small second year sat all alone on a bench, holding a notebook.

An owl came over to him and he stuffed what he was writing on into the pouch the brown barn owl was carrying. "Take this to..." And the rest of his words were drowned out by the crowd of students who had now opened their packages and were talking again.

The barn owl blinked once at him, then with a massive flap he took off, beating his wings furiously to get lift.

This owl's name was Bear, a stupid name if you asked the boy who used Bear, but Bear was not that boys' owl. Bear belonged to the man he was now flying to, taking the letter across oceans, plains, and mountains to its destination.

This whole trip took poor Bear two days to complete, but he did it.

When it was finished a man in a black robe picked up Bear as Bear caught his breath. The black clad man picked out the note and read it silently. "So he's here," the man said under his breath, "prepare yourself, this one will be tough to get, but more than worth it." The last two sentences were directed to his immediate left and right, two other men wearing black robes.

"Has the boy found him?" One asked.

"Yes. And before his father can find us, we need to move in. Get ready to tell the others."

The other figure now spoke, "The boy's father will find us, that much is certain."

A grin broke out on the middle figure's face, lighting up his features with insanity. "Yes, I know that. But we can at least get our revenge. Revenge on the boy who lived."

* * *

 **So the main villain makes an appearence. This should get more fun from here on out. But here's another thing, as not many characters are known from after the Battle for Hogwarts, there is now a contest going on. You guys who are reading can submit characters, both original or not, into the comments section. You can also tell me what they are (student, teacher, villain, etc.). And if im interested i will message you. The winners will be honored in the next few chapters with their character's names. Thanks for reading so far, as I feel so honored that you have taken the time out of your day for this. Have a great day.**


	5. Harry's Knowlege

"They were here. There's definitely dark magic in the area."

Harry spoke quietly, stowing his wand away in his black robes after studying the ground. Over to his right an ex-auror with a voice like rolling thunder spoke.

"What was that, Potter?"

Harry stood up from where he was crouched, "Nothing, Kingsley, just confirming that there was some sort of Dark Magic here."

Kingsley, who was now the minister of magic, looked up at Harry. "Do you see any physical evidence yet?"

Harry looked around, constantly extending the area that was in his view. Around twenty feet away there was a small object shining, but that's no sure guarantee that it's evidence. Lights shined from houses a few miles away, Tinworth. Tinworth was where Shell Cottage was, and where Ron and Hermione were staying with their son Hugo. They told him that they apparated there right after dropping off Rose and seeing her off.

"There's something a few feet that way," Harry said pointing to the shining object.

Kingsley walked over to it and took a look, "Might want to see this, Potter," he called back, "It's addressed to you." And Kingsley picked up the shining object and carried it back to Harry.

The object was a cylinder the size of Harry's palm. It caught the moonlight that was caressing the sky, and twinkled merrily. The twinkle itself reminded Harry of Dumbledore's eyes, eyes he hadn't seen in 19 years.

On it was the words: 'To the Boy Who Lived."

"This certainly is exciting." Kingsley told Harry. Kingsley chose to go with Harry to Tinworth because he was tired of the humdrum of being the minister and longed for some more excitement. This definitely fit the bill for what he was looking for, a clearly dark object addressed to Harry Potter.

Harry took the cylinder from him and twisted the top. It slid loose without a sound.

In it was a letter, a simple letter that to Harry was all but simple.

 _"Dear Harry Potter,_

 _Your foolish boyhood has made you powerful enemies._ _Those of us who had followed the Dark Lord look upon you with anger and spite._ _And most would be eager to have a chat with you._

 _Unfortunately we can't, that would be foolish on our own part, but we can hurt you in more ways than one._ _Mental pain._ _A worse hurt than crucio, tears from worse than a stinging jinx._ _We will crush your soul and the souls of those you call your closest friends by doing what you consider impossible._

 _We will kill your sons._

 _We will kill both of your sons, beginning wih the firstborn James._ _Then comes the end to both your younger son Albus, and then Rose Weasley._

 _You will despair the day that you killed the Dark Lord._ _For that day will make its revenge against you._

 _We have already dissaparated by the time you read this, but no matter how fast you get to Hogwarts and warn the teachers, you will be too late to stop us._ _The stone has begun its path down the hill, and the momentum is now ours._

 _With hope that you find this,_

 _Torturer's Hand."_

Harry felt chills run through his neck and down to his spine. Albus, Rose, James. They were all in danger, and Ron and Hermione had no clue what was about to happen.

Harry's hands holding both the cylinder and note started to shake violently, so these people thought that they could mess with his sons? Then there was nothing that would stop him from ending those death eaters; the Torturer's Hand.

"Are you okay, Potter?" Kingsley's booming voice said.

The cylinder and its message dropped to the dirt.

"I have to warn them."

And Harry turned, dissaparating to the spot he knew he must go: Shell Cottage. Kingsley was left staring at the spot Harry used to have been and sighed, it was back to being the Minister of Magic. Maybe later he would ask Harry what is going on, but for now he trusted Harry's judgement.

When Harry's body reappeared in reality, he was in front of a small cottage by the sea. Ten feet from him was a red pile of dirt signifying the elf that had saved his life, Dobby: A Free Elf.

In the cottage lights were on and voices could be heard talking and laughing.

Inside of Shell Cottage, Hermione and Fleur were laughing at a joke Ron had just told them.

"Eez zat really what a normal day eez like at the joke shop?" Fleur was asking Ron.

"Nah," Ron replied," Only when The Hogwarts kids are there. That's when life gets crazy."

"And how long have you been working zere?" The veela woman asked.

Hermione's set her hand on her husband's arm and answered for him, "Ten years now. George was kind enough to offer him the job opening that Fred's death left."

This left Ron free to guzzle down some firewhiskey and wipe his face. "That's good." He said contently.

"And what do you do now Hermione?" Bill asked her.

"I'm a member of the ministry of magic The Magical Law Enforcement Office. We're currently working on house elf rights."

That was when a knock at the door stopped Hermione from continuing on about what she was doing. Bill walked to the door and looked outside, "It's Harry." He told everyone, "And he does not look good."

Bill opened the door to reveal a rather shell shocked Harry Potter. "Hi Harry, we didn't expect to see you here."

Harry didn't answer, but looked for Ron and Hermione desperately. His eyes held the wild look of a cornered animal.

"Where's Ron and Hermione, this is urgent."

Bill opened the door farther and welcomed Harry in, recognizing the head Auror's need for his companions. "They're in the dining room." Bill told Harry.

"Thank you," and Harry walked into the cottage.

He strode through the cottage with ease, remembering its layout perfectly from all the times he'd been there. And in the dining room he found Ron, Hermione, Fleur, and Ron and Hermione's son: Hugo looking at him in surprise.

"What are you doing here mate?" Ron asked him.

"We need to go. Our children are in danger; Rose, Albus, and James are threatened by someone seriously trying to hurt the three of us."

Ron stood up instantly, the satisfied look on his face replaced by deadly seriousness. "Where are we going?"

"Hogwarts."

Hermione stood by her husband's side, her look now one of motherly protection, "If all our children are in danger then we need to tell Ginny. Does she know already?"

Harry shook his head.

"We can apparate to your house then go over to Hogwarts. Hugo," she addressed their son who was looking at them with wide eyes, "I want you to stay here. Is it all right if he stays here?"

Fleur nodded, her silvery hair shaking as her head moved. "He will always be velcome to stay here."

Harry's sense finally caught up to him, invading his mind and overriding his parental instincts. "We need to be careful about this. I don't want our children to be in danger, but we can't alert the death eaters who want our children killed to the presence of the law. They would run away and try to kill them some other time. We need to take them all out at once, but we need to do that alone, no ministry or Auror's. And no letting our children know."

Ron looked at Harry in surprise, "Death Eaters? Weren't they exterminated with Voldemort's death by the auror department?"

"Apparently not."

With a nod to Bill, thanking him for protecting Hugo, Harry began to walk to the door. Ron and Hermione both followed him, their motley trio now recombined after 19 years to fight death eaters.

Bill opened the door for the Golden Trio, and they exited. Once they were a few feet away from Shell Cottage they turned and vanished. A loud crack filled the air as they dissaparated, and Hugo watched out a window in amazement.

"Is this what my parents were like before?" He asked Fleur.

Fleur nodded and reassured him that they would bring his sister home okay.

Number 12 Grimmauld Place was looking as creaky as ever when Harry, Ron, and Hermione arrived at it. But Harry ignored its shabby appearance and entered his home.

"Harry? Are you home?" Ginny called from another room.

"Yeah, but not for long. Where are you?"

"In the family tree room."

The family tree room was completely remodeled, featuring the Potter and Weasley families instead of the Blacks. Though Harry made sure that Sirius was on there as his godfather.

Ginny was inside tracing her tree back to her great grandfather, a past time that interested her.

When she saw Ron and Hermione behind Harry, she smiled warmly. Then Ginny noticed the grim and hard looks on their faces, and her warm look slid off.

"What's wrong?" She asked, knowing her husband's line of work could be fatal.

Harry pointed to his family tree, ending with James, Albus, and Lily. "Albus and James' lives are in danger by ex-death eaters."

Before Harry had even finished his sentence, Ginny's red headed blood was rushing through her system. "Let's go, you can explain when we're wherever we need to be."

When the golden trio hesitated she pulled out her wand and pointed it at Ron. "Curse of the bogies, remember Zachariah Smith."

That got Ron moving out of the room faster than a house elf assaulted with underwear, and the others soon followed as she pointed her wand to them in turns.

"Let's go already; we aren't making any progress by staying here." Harry said to the group as they left Number 12, they were ready to defend their children.


	6. Back to Hogwarts

Albus' first week went by like it was nothing, faster than the newest model of Firebolt. The hours passed and Albus tried to learn with the other first years, yet the speed worked against him. Albus was constantly scrambling to complete homework, or study A History of Magic.

One would often find Rose and Scorpius in the library with Albus, frantically trying to help him learn. The two of them didn't have as many problems with studying, so they tried to help Albus as best as possible.

"What wand movement is used for a trip jinx?" Scorpius asked Albus during one of their study sessions. Albus bit his lip while he racked his brain for the answer.

"A windmill?"

Scorpius shook his head.

"A jab?"

Another shake.

"Do you just point?"

Rose set down the book she was reading, "A corkscrew," she told Albus.

Scorpius sighed, "Albus won't learn anything if you keep helping him. He needs to figure it out on his own."

Rose gave back a retort about her father and mother's study habits when thy were in Hogwarts. This quickly degenerated into an argument about the best way to study.

A sick feeling had been rising in Al's stomach a few hours ago, but he roughed it out so far. Now with Rose and Scorpius talking about which study habits were the best, Albus needed a break.

"Actually guys," he interrupted them, "can we head outside? I need a break for studying before dinner."

Scorpius looked away from Rose and stretched, "yeah, I could go for a break too. Care to head outside?"

Rose nodded her ascent and so they went.

The sun was starting to set on the Saturday evening, and the grounds seemed to glow with beauty. Couples were kissing under the orange sky, sitting together under trees. Nearly all of the trees on the grounds had some occupants, though all students avoided the whomping willow.

The light from the sunset shined on a marble grave and across from the grave: a stone pillar. Both were symbols of fallen heroes, both the great headmaster Dumbledore, and those who had fallen in the Battle for Hogwarts.

Two fifth girls were laying flowers across the stone pillar, yellow flowers from the herbology greenhouses.

And not too far away from them was Albus' brother: James, hand in hand with a girl that Albus had never met before.

Albus and Rose stopped, letting Scorpius continue to walk without noticing that something had changed. After a few feet Scorpius realized his two friends had vanished, and walked back to them.

Albus and Rose just kept staring at James, who had started making out with the girl.

"Isn't that your brother, Albus?" Scorpius asked. Albus merely nodded, never taking his eyes off the couple.

James finally unglued from his girlfriend and looked up to see Albus. Horror spread across his face as he figured out that Albus had been watching him.

"Al?" James said, "This isn't what it looks like."

Nothing, just continuous staring.

"Uhhhhhh", James said, "FLIPENDO!"

Like a rope sweeping out their legs, the trip jinx slammed into Rose, Al, and Scorpius. The three of them fell on their backs, the wind knocked out of them.

When they were able to look up again, James and the mysterious girl were running towards the castle.

"Are you going to tell your mom and dad?" Rose asked Al.

"Totally."

That was when the bell rang, signaling everyone to come inside for dinner. Everyone outside got up and flooded towards the great hall.

When everyone was seated; Albus was sitting across from James, whose cheeks were bright red. James continually stole glances at Albus, then looking down the table where a blond girl was sitting.

Mcgonagal stepped up to the headmaster's podium, "Attention, students."

Her voice echoed throughout the hall, and all students' and ghosts' conversations stopped instantly.

"We are only one week into the school year and Filch has already asked me to remind you that all items from Weasley Wizard Wheezes are banned. I doubt that any of you will care about this ban, but I'm going to remind you anyway. Don't say I didn't warn you when Filch is begging for your expulsion."

Laughter echoed throughout the hall.

"Another point of news is that our guest this year has arrived surprisingly early."

A man at the front of Gryffindor table stood up. Jet black hair and lightning scar recognizable by everyone.

The entire great hall stared at Harry as he stood up and gave a little wave.

"Harry," Mcgonagal said, "is a former student at Hogwarts, and I will assume that all of you know about him. If you don't, please ask him. Now Mr. Potter, please come up and give a few words."

Albus watched his Dad walk up to the staff table and then across it, giving friendly greetings to some of the teachers as he went. When he reached the podium, he and Mcgonagal talked for a short second, then Mcgonagal took a step back and let Harry talk.

Harry gave the hall a quick scan, eyes resting on the children of his friends and his own children, then he began.

"First I'd like to say that it's amazing to be back at Hogwarts, nothing seems to have changed."

A chopstick flew across the room and hit Harry on the side of his head. Harry looked to its origin point and saw Peeves grinning like a madman.

"Right, Peeves at least won't change."

Peeves waved to Harry in appreciation.

"A second thing I'd like to say is that it is my pleasure to administer an advanced dueling club this year. We will cover anything one would need to know in a fight. If you want to sign up, please talk to me or one of my assistants."

Harry gestured to the head of Gryffindor table, and three other people stood up. One with a mop of red hair, one with bushy brown, and a third with flowing red hair.

"Mom? Dad?" Rose murmured to herself, "what are you doubt here?"

Unknown to Rose, Albus was murmuring the same thing about his own mother, Ginny Potter.

Harry continued as the Ron, Ginny, and Hermione sat down.

"Space is limited, so sign up quickly."

And Harry stepped back and said another word to Mcgonagal, walking down to take his seat again. Mcgonagal took her podium back and waved her hand, food appearing on the tables.

Albus and Rose at quickly then told Scorpius they would be right back, and walked over to their parents.

Harry nudged Ron, Ginny, and Hermione, and they looked up and saw their children walking towards them.

"Albus," Harry started, "You're in Gryffindor!" Albus' father looked very excited as he said this. Across the table Ron and Hermione were saying the same thing to their daughter.

"Dad, there's something important I need to tell you. I found out something."

Harry and Ginny's faces turned stony, "What is it?" Ginny asked with motherly concern.

"James has a girlfriend."

Harry and Ginny's faces relaxed, then Ginny's instantly hardened again. "He isn't old enough to have a serious relationship." Ginny told Albus.

Harry was behind Ginny, smiling happily and trying to catch James' eye, nodding in approval. Ginny looked behind herself and saw her husband supporting this, then elbowed him in the ribs.

"Right." Harry said while massaging his side, "we'll have to talk to him. But right now you need to go enjoy your dinner and talk with your friends, we can see you later."

Albus gave his mom a hug and walked back to his seat, giving James a devilish look as he did so. James' face paled as he realized that Albus told his parents what happened today.

"You didn't tell them, did you?" James asked Al as Al sat down.

Al nodded.

"Bloody hell." James looked down, but then instantly was forced to look up again due to a pinching force on his ear.

It was his mother, and she did not look happy with James.

"Watch your mouth." She told him, her eyes giving them a look patented by James' grandmother, Molly Weasley. "And what is this about a girlfriend?"

"Ah, umm, er, she's ah. Um, she's a. Um. A friend?" James stuttered out. Down the table a ways his girl was watching him get his ear practically ripped off by his mother, and smiling.

James looked at his girl, and Ginny followed his gaze, seeing the blond beauty.

"Good choice." Harry said, coming up behind his wife and placing a hand on her shoulder.

Ginny looked up at Harry giving a look that told him he was on the wrong side of this argument, and he shot back a look that said that there was more to be talked about.

"Yes," Ginny said with a pained look, "she's very pretty."

James watched his mom and dad walk back over to their friends warily, like his mom would shoot a hex in his direction at any time.

"So that's your parents?" Scorpius asked Albus.

"Yeah, from what I've heard fame really hasn't changed them. They've always been pretty fun."

Scorpius drank some pumpkin juice then asked another question about their jobs.

"My dad is head of the auror department, and my mom is retired. Though she used to be the captain of the Hollyhead Harpies."

Scorpius started to choke, the small amount of pumpkin juice left going down his air pipe. A sixth year looked over at him at said "anapneo." Clearing Scorpius' air pipe quickly.

"The Hollyhead Harpies?" Scorpius sputtered, "The all girl team?"

"Yeah, she plays chaser, do you play quidditch?"

Scorpius nodded, "I'm a beater, how about you?"

"My dad has been training me to play seeker, but my brother got his skill. James plays seeker for Gryffindor, you'll see him play for the first game."

Scorpius ran a hand through his blond hair, "Didn't my dad play against yours?" Scorpius smiled, "From what he told me, our fathers weren't the friendliest to each other."

Albus smiled back, remembering all of the stories he had heard from his own father. "Yeah, they weren't really friends."

Scorpius tossed his head back and laughed, Albus joining in after a second. It was a jolly moment for the Gryffindor Table, until some spare pumpkin juice went right back down Scorpius' air pipe.

"A little help." He gasped out, going purple in the face. The same sixth year looked over and cast the same spell, clearing Scorpius' airway once again. And the celebrity appearance was all anybody would talk about for the next couple of days, leaving everybody to wonder who would make it into the dueling club.


	7. Charms class

Albus soon learned that his brother's girlfriend broke up with James, saying that "They needed space." The more likely reason for the breakup was that Ginny would give the poor girl a classic Weasley glare every time she saw her. To everyone else it seemed like James took the break up somewhat relaxed, saying that his mother didn't really approve of it.

"Mind you, no matter what he says I still saw James crying over a picture of her in the fifth floor bathrooms." Scorpius told Rose and Albus as they walked to a double Charms class with the Hufflepuffs. Albus looked over at Scorpius incredulously, "My brother, my arrogant brother, crying over a girl?"

Scorpius nodded, "I walked in after potions the other day. I heard crying in a stall and got concerned, so I knocked on the door. When James was the one who walked out, he was holding a picture of her in his hand. I think that it once was a picture of them together, but she kicked his picture self out."

They reached Professor Flitwick's classroom and walked in, inside there was a surprise that sent a sinking feeling through Al's stomach. His father, Harry Potter, was sitting in the back of the classroom.

Albus had heard from a few third year students about Harry visiting classes, but this was the first time they were in the same class.

Nervousness flooded Albus' mind, and he froze at the door. Scorpius and Rose walked in unfazed and looked at him expectantly. Al swallowed the large knot in his throat that had suddenly surfaced and walked to his desk, avoiding looking at his dad the whole time. On his desk, and everyone else's, was a crumpled up ball. And when everybody had piled in, Flitwick explained what the feather, and Harry, was for.

"Hello everyone, for a bit we have been practicing the levitating spell. Wingardium Leviosa. And today we have a visitor to help us practice, Mr. Potter." Flitwick looked to Harry, "Mr. Potter, could you please tell us the use you have gotten from Wingardium Leviosa?"

Harry didn't miss a beat, "My friend knocked out a troll with it in our first year, levitated its own club."

A gasp ran through the first years; anyone taking on a troll and winning is unthinkable, but a first year? Even more so. Whispers spread as the students debated which person in the famous friend group of Harry Potter knocked out the troll.

Rose leaned over to Al and Scorpius, "And none of them will ever consider it was my dad."

Scorpius looked at her, "The ginger?"

"Yeah, he had his moments."

"Wow," Scorpius breathed.

Flitwick smacked a ruler against his desk, getting the first years' attentions. "So we have practiced yesterday with feathers, and now we are moving on to a rounder object. There should be a crumpled piece of parchment on your desks, practice on that. If you are unable to levitate the parchment then we have more feathers for you to use."

Rose, Scorpius, and Al all pulled out their wands and started practicing. Wands appeared elsewhere from inside cloaks, and paper balls began to float in midair.

"Remember Wizard Baruffio." Flitwick called out amidst the minefield of paper, "who said F instead of S and ended with a buffalo on his chest."

Harry and Flitwick moved throughout the crowd, assisting wherever they were needed.

"Nicen, stop levitating Peters."

"Your ball should not be going out the window, Johan."

"Daren, we are not lighting the ball on fire, just levitating it. Please don't swing a fiery ball around. Daren! DAREN! Oh bloody hell, _Augumenti_!"

This continued for half the class period until Flitwick called on people individually to go to the front of class and attempt to levitate a book. The book was a _Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1 by Miranda Goshawk_ , and was reasonably heavier than feathers or parchment. Despite that, most students could lift the book to eye height for a few seconds, albeit with some struggling.

When Albus was called up, the sinking feeling returned to his gut. He could feel his father's gaze boring into his skull and his palms grew slick and sweaty. With his hands slippery, his wand fell and hit the ground with a resounding clack. A giggle spread through the class, they could all see Albus' cheeks grow bright red.

Albus picked it up and hurried over to the front of class. Flitwick gestured to the thick book lying on a stool, and Albus readied his wand.

The book became the focus point of an intense tunnel vision. To Albus nothing else mattered, and therefore nothing else was seen. Albus' nerves played out in his mind, showing him everything that could go wrong, and he closed his eyes.

" _Wingardium Leviosa_!"

Albus felt the innate magic in his body flow into his hand and funnel through his wand. Like fire it stimulated the nerves in his fingers, tingling as it drove out the stress in his mind. When magic was being used Albus felt powerful, the complete opposite of when he did schoolwork, and putting his soul into the magic did the trick: it removed all distractions.

Albus calmly opened his eyes and looked to the stool that the book was lying on. The book still lay there, not a page turned.

He frowned, frustration replacing what had been exhilaration moments ago. Albus' eyes found the class, expecting their faces to echo his feelings… but none of them were even there; their chairs were empty.

"Mind getting us down?" Harry's voice said from above.

Albus looked up and saw the entire class, along with his father and teacher, suspended in midair. They floated around in zero gravity, miming swimming motions or looking in shock or awe as the magic worked. "What in Merlin's na-" Albus managed to say before his spell wore off and the class fell.

Tables and chairs splintered under students and screams of pain split the air. Flitwick was on the ground near his podium, thankfully unhurt, and staggered to his feet. He watched as most of his class rolled around in splinters of pain, "Oh dear, it appears that the hospital wing will have a busy day."

And it did. There were three broken legs, five broken collarbones, and two broken arms.

The injured students were healed up in no time at all, bones mending faster than any muggle medicine could work, but Albus' stress could not heal. There was ridicule and scorn shot at him from every corner of his classes, and his school work continued to suffer. His mistakes in classes now starting to compound.

In the first year's flying class, Albus almost ran over Scorpius as Scorpius was flying around a tree. Albus had been trying to fly above, but his flying skill wasn't like his father's, and he practically went through the tree and came out in front of Scorpius. Scorpius pulled up on his own broom and barely avoided Albus, brushing the tail end of Albus' own broom. Thankfully nobody actually was hurt during that, but Albus' own nervousness got the better of him.

In potions Albus accidentally switched porcupine quills and hedgehog spine. While he stirred it, a funny feeling was on his ladle. The whole ladle was eaten away. From the cauldron came a congealed red mass that chased around the whole class for five minutes before Slughorn woke up and blasted it away. Apparently it was made out of some sort of acid, because when it had touched Albus as Albus tried to run, his cloak started to erode away. This left Albus standing in a dank dungeon with just shorts and a tee shirt on, shivering.

And the worst was in Transfiguration. Albus stumbled over his spell whilst trying to change a pencil near Rose into a pen. This ended up in the spell hitting Rose and giving her an extra leg. Once she was Bipedal, Rose forgave Albus, but since then she has always sat on the end of the table with Scorpius between the two of them.

Many thought it safe to say that Albus would not live up to his father's image.

And Albus believed them.


	8. Concerns

"We need to help Albus." Ginny told Harry, "He's struggling, and we're actually near him. We need to help our son."

Harry sighed, "We're not here for that. We're here to save him, not his grades. Splitting our focus will just make it harder to keep him safe."

Ginny stared at Harry in shock, then sat down on their bed with him; they were in their temporary living quarters a week after Albus' latest stressful mess up. They were discussing, once again, what they could do to help. Ginny was all for stepping in, but Harry was stern against it.

"Do you want our son to keep failing?"

"Do you think I enjoy watching him struggle? Well I don't anymore than you. I want to help him out as much as you, but I don't see how. It'll be hard enough to keep an eye out with having the advanced dueling club. But if we start helping Al then we might just kill him by not paying enough attention to the real reason why we're here."

Harry put his head in his hands and rubbed his weary eyes. Ginny looked closely and saw bags under his eyes. She set her hand on Harry's arm, trying to comfort him.

"How about you kill two birds with one stone. Take Al into the dueling club to boost his confidence. I've talked to his teachers and they all say it's just a confidence issue. Teach him, and he'll be confident."

"I can't," Harry said, "that would seem like favoritism. Remember that the class is for higher years only. I can't include him."

"So what? He's the son of the legendary Harry Potter, you can show favoritism to your own son."

"If it feels to him or anyone else that I'm giving him special treatment then that could operate against his confidence. He might think we pity him, or think that we believe he needs help to be successful. That would ruin his confidence without even thinking about what the other students would do to him."

It was Ginny's turn to sigh.

"Then what do we do?"

"I don't kno-"

A small rumble shook Hogwarts, interrupting Harry. Dust fell from the ceiling as a second rumble passed, and a girl's scream then split the air. Her scream shocked Harry and Ginny onto their feet and trying to determine where it came from.

"What the hell was that?" Harry said, yanking out his wand and running out into the first floor corridor above the transfiguration classrooms. Ron and Hermione were living in a room a few doors down and had already run outside, wands drawn.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Ron echoed Harry.

"No clue," Ginny said from behind Harry, "but it sounded like it came from the greenhouses."

"That's where the first years are in class." Hermione gasped, she ran off towards the staircase. Everyone else sprinted after her, trying to keep up with a mother fueled by fear.

"Wait," Ron gasped out as he ran, "you memorized Rose's schedule?"

"I was looking for something to read and we had a copy of the schedule."

"Reading is one thing, but memorizing..."

"Never mind that now, Ron!"

The group of four ran past the transfiguration classrooms as a group of students ran the opposite way, followed by a plump witch covered in grime. "Hurry to your dormitories and stay there." She cried out.

"Professor Sprout, what's going on?" Ginny asked her.

"A giant." Sprout told them breathlessly, "he appeared from the forbidden forest with no warning and attacked us."

The ground shook again, and accompanying the shaking was the crashing noise of glass breaking.

"Not the greenhouses!" Sprout yelled and started trying to run back to her classrooms. Harry and company quickly overtook her as the plump, elderly witch could only run so fast so far. They ran outside and greeting them was a giant reaching easily twenty feet in the air.

At its feet lay the remains of a greenhouse, it's floral occupants scattered on the floor.

The giant itself was an ugly brute drooling his way along with large, calloused hands and a broken-looking nose. And the smell was worse than if a troll had romped through Moaning Myrtle's stalls during diarrhea season.

The smell threatened to expunge Harry's last meal, but a rock grew in his throat and stopped it as he saw Rose, Al, and a blond boy cower behind another green house.

"There they are." Harry said, pointing.

"Harry and I can take the giant," Ron told the girls, "Ginny, Hermione, get the kids to safety."

"Got it." The two girls ran off, careful to move from debris pile to debris pile in order to not attract attention.

"Let's go." Harry told Ron.

"Yeah, can't be much harder than that troll we took down. Remember that?"

Harry smiled, "same principle? I distract it and you finish it off?"

Ron returned the smile, "There you go," then rushed down towards the giant, he echoed his own past as he yelled insults, "OI STUPID!"

Harry watched as Ron dodged around the giant's clumsy strikes, then snuck around the shattered greenhouse to get behind the giant. The smell was even worse near the giant's hairy backside.

He looked to the side, and saw Al, Rose, Ginny, Hermione, and the blond kid scurry away from the giant. Then Harry remembered what Ginny told him about Al, "It's just a confidence issue." He whispered to himself. Then a brilliantly stupid idea struck him.

"Albus! Over here!" Harry yelled, getting the attention of the small group, "How about a boost upwards!"

Albus nodded, then pulled out his wand and pointed it at Harry. Even from twenty feet away, Harry could see Albus' arm shake.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Albus yelled, his first attempt sailing over Harry's shoulder and sending broken glass upwards.

"Calm down and concentrate!" Harry yelled as a crash came from behind him, the giant smashing another greenhouse Ron had run around.

The second spell hit Harry directly on his chest, scoring a fist pump from Albus.

Harry floated upwards and landed on the neck of the giant, going for a piggy back ride of death.

The giant reached up and tried to pull Harry off, but Harry burned its hands with his wand.

"Now Ron!"

Ron turned around from running and took aim at the ground around him.

"Wingardium Leviosa."

Rocks, glass, and sticks rose around him, menacingly pointed at the giant's skull, and Harry.

Harry jumped off the giant's neck and slid towards the ground, cutting himself on glass lying on the ground.

Ron launched his projectiles, cutting holes in the giant reminiscent of a shotgun's pellets peppering a target. Shards of glass cut through the giant's torso to fly out the back, rocks slammed into its neck, and twigs embedded themselves in its ears. One shard of glass landed squarely on the giant's skull and the giant shuddered.

The glass stuck out like a unicorn's horn and stuck there quivering, piercing all the way to the minuscule brain.

The giant fell backwards. Harry rolled to the side as it fell, cutting himself more on the greenhouse remains. But the giant was still, harmless in the grasp of death.

"Dad! Are you okay?!" Albus yelled and ran up to his father. He knelt beside his dad and nudged him with his wand.

Harry grinned, "that was awesome Al, a human twenty feet in the air? Phenomenal."

Albus' own face spread into a smile, "I can't believe I was able to do that."

"Powerful magic, you've got powerful magic. And you controlled it well today."

Harry stood up, "You should probably rejoin your friends, then head back up to your dormitory. I think that Griffyndor house would like to hear about what you did."

"You got it, Dad." Albus hurried over to Rose and the blond boy and exchanged high fives. Harry watched him go, satisfied that his job was well done.

"Hey Harry," Ron called out from the Giant's body as he investigated. "The giant has a marking on it." Ron showed Harry a branding mark on the giant's back shoulder that Harry hadn't seen when riding the giant. But once he got a glimpse there was no mistaking it.

The Dark Mark.

A/N: I am now on a schedule for writing chapters. Nobody Will Know chapters will be published every Saturday for those of us in America. I have absolutely no clue about other places, but it's Saturday for America. But expect that every week there will be a new chapter. Have A Great Day my peeps.

-Dlahm


	9. Advanced Dueling Club

Harry smiled at Ginny, "So." he said, "It seems as if my little improvisation worked." He held up his hands, "no need to thank me." Ginny had to smile, he was right. His impromptu help from Albus seemed to do the trick they were looking for. Albus was a small hero in Griffindor house the next few days after his helping his dad take down a giant.

"Fine, I won't. It does look like Albus' confidence is on the rise, he's making less mistakes in class. And when he does make a mistake, he gets right back up and learns from them."

"So you don't think we need to invite him to the dueling club?"

"Nope."

"God." Harry looked around the empty classroom they were in, then checked his old Marauder's map. "Because the first students will arrive in 3-2-1-. Drat it." The door remained closed. "3-2-1." The door was still closed. "Oh forget it, are these students going to walk in or not?"

The door opened. Standing in the doorway was a group of tentative sixth years.

"Is this the advanced dueling club?" One of the boys asked.

Stupid question. There was a dueling stage with Harry and Ginny Potter standing on it. To anybody with half of a brain cell, this is the dueling club. Harry hoped that the student wasn't a Ravenclaw, because that would be somewhat embarrassing.

Ginny rolled her eyes, "Yeah, I would hope that this just might be the dueling club. Otherwise Harry and I were given the wrong classroom to teach in and muggle studies will be walking in at any moment to tell us to get out. Then we'd have to move this dueling stage as well, and that would be a chore. So I think that this might be the dueling club."

The boy promptly gained a sheepish look on his face, ears and cheeks reddening, "Right. Sorry ma'am. Ask a stupid question get a stupid ans-"

"Are you calling my answer stupid?"

"No ma'am!"

Harry smiled, one of the reasons that he married her. The nervous girl he met in his second year he hadn't seen since then, this was his redheaded beauty.

"So if you could all take a seat around the dueling stage," he said, "We can wait until the other students get here and then we can start."

Those students took a seat in the middle and waited, whispering to each other their hopes for this club. Harry heard one of the girls in the group tell her friend that she wants a lock of Harry's hair.

Occupational hazard of being famous, the rabid fangirls.

More students meandered into the classroom over the next ten minutes, streaming into the room in groups until forty fifth, sixth, and seventh years surrounded them. Ron and Hermione also walked in during that time, with an old friend in tow.

"Hey Neville." Harry said, shaking his friend's hand.

"Hiya Harry, Ron and Hermione told me that you wanted me to help out with the dueling club?"

Harry nodded, "Yeah, we could use another teacher. And as it is, you're the only one of us who actually is a teacher, and who else would I want to help me teach the next generation of duelists. So if you want to help us tea-"

"Heck yeah," Neville interrupted, "Course I want to. You're lucky I have these evenings free, because I also am in charge of DADA club and help at Herbology club. I'd have to quit one of them in order to make time for this, and I don't want to do that." Neville then smiled devilishly, "Sort of reminds me of our second year, eh Harry?"

Harry groaned, "Hopefully I'm a better teacher than him. I don't want to be disarmed in front of the whole class. That's my spell."

"Don't duel me as an example then." Neville jested.

Ginny motioned for Harry to start the class, apparently all of the students had arrived. Harry tried to somber up and put on a serious teacher face, but failed, joking around with Neville made that impossible. But when he looked at Neville, who with his years of experience teaching, he saw that Neville had already put on his own serious face.

"So," he addressed the students, "I guess you're all here. So we'll start by introducing ourselves and some things we've done that make us the right teachers. I'm Harry Potter, head of the Auror department and I defeated Voldemort in my seventh year. Ron?" Harry motioned for Ron to do the same.

"Hi, m'name's Ron Weasley. I fought in the Battle for Hogwarts and currently co-own the joke store franchise 'Weasley's Wizard Wheezes' and I know every one of our products so don't try to disrupt class with them. I can smell one of our own dungbombs from a mile away."

Hemione was next.

"Hermione Weasley. Working for the Ministry of Magic and also fought in the battle."

"Hello, Ginny Potter, ex-captain of the HollyHead Harpies and this nimrod's brother." Ginny pointed a thumb at Ron, "If that doesn't qualify me to teach, I don't know what does."

"Neville Longbottom, and I'm already your teacher. So I know who the troublemakers are. Stevens I'm looking at you."

A chuckle ran through the crowd and the student Neville pointed out looked around with an innocent look on his face. He looked at Neville with an expression like one of the Weasley Twins.

Harry continued, "So how many of you know how to duel?"

A couple of hands rose.

"How many of you know how to shoot a spell at someone?"

All of the hands rose.

"Well, congratulations. You now know how to duel. Shoot the other guy before he shoots you, alright class is over. I taught you everything I know."

Shoulders shrugged and smiles spread. Harry pulled out his wand.

"Dueling is a lot deeper than that. You need to read your opponent to predict their next spells, defend yourself. Move and use the environment. Plan your spells to condition your opponent into making a mistake. Then finish them. Ron... care to have a duel with me?"

Ron nodded, then took out his own wand. The other teachers jumped onto the floor.

After Ron was helped off of the ground and his nose bleed stanched, a round of applause spread through the students.

"Of course I went easy on him," Ron told the crowd with a grin, "He couldn't take me down any other way."

Harry pointed his wand at Ron's feet and whispered "Levicorpus." Ron flew upside down.

"Really?" he asked Harry while the whole class laughed. "You had to rub it in?"

Harry couldn't answer back, he was to busy laughing with the rest of the class. Even Hermione joined in as she saw Ron's hair standing on end. Harry let Ron dangle there for a moment, then let him back down.

"Now that the fun is out of the way, we can start practicing. First off, useful spells."

Harry spent the lesson discussing spells useful for combat, whether they distract the opponent, hurt the opponent, change the surroundings, or make your chances better, they discussed it. He was pleased to see that the students weren't afraid to ask questions in order to come to grips with a certain subject, and were more than happy to see examples of their discussion topics.

Neville, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione moved around the crowd of students while Harry taught, correcting faults in their form and answering questions that they had. That job was often the most dangerous as sometimes a spell will randomly shoot out from a wand and almost hit the person that's in front of them. This caused quite an uproar when Harry told everybody about disarming's potential in battle. It took around ten minutes to get everyone's wands back to the right people.

During all of the mess that took place, Harry had some time to think about what to do next. When everyone had their wands back, he stopped the practice.

"So it looks like everyone has got the basic gist of it, so let's get some real practice in. Partner up with someone of your own level of skill and get in a line right in front of me."

There was scuffling as people tried to partner up, and a few odd wheels were left out to be partnered up together.

"Okay, good. You're going to come up here and have a duel. There will be no spells that are dangerous, it's at your discretion on which are dangerous, but if I feel like a spell is dangerous then you will be kicked out of the club and not allowed to return. There is no room for people fooling around with spells that could leave somebody hurt beyond repair."

The pairs all went up and tried out their hands at dueling, and all pleasure Harry had at seeing the students want to learn dissipated as he saw their complete ineptitude at dueling. Clearly only those who hadn't dueled before had gone here, maybe the others thought it was a beginner's course? Either way, Harry looked at them and saw a lot of room for improvement. One pair of girls didn't even try to duel each other and just looked at each other until Harry took them down from the dueling platform.

At the end of the day, it came to Harry's lying skills.

"That was great, you all at least understand how to duel. I expect you to practice dueling, though not by actually dueling in the halls, maybe search up spells that are useful to distract or delay opponents. I'd suggest the impediment curse, it slows enemies down."

The group of students filtered out of the classroom and filed off to their common rooms.

"That... was embarrassing." Neville told Harry, "None of these students remember what I taught them in their fifth year, I discussed dueling basics then. But there was an epidemic of the Weasley's recent joke item: Sneezing Sweets. I couldn't go through a whole class without twenty of the students leaving before they blew out their brains when sneezing."

Ron raised a hand, "Guilty. Sorry Neville."

"Don't worry about it, we can still teach them now. This kind of feels like the old Dumbledore's Army, right guys?"

The others spent a moment thinking back to their own fifth year. "Yeah," Ginny said, "It does remind me of that."

A knock on the door interrupted them, in the doorway was a blond haired first year in Griffindor robes. Ron looked at him skeptically, remembering his likeness from somewhere. The train. Scorpius.

"Yes?" Harry asked the student.

"Umm, is this where the dueling club was supposed to meet?"

"Yeah, we just ended the first session. I don't think you are old enough to join though, you're what... a first or second year?"

"A first year. My name is Scorpius Malfoy, and I wanted to see if my friends and I may join the dueling club. We're good at dueling, and maybe we could pick up a few tips?"

Ron butted in, "This is for the higher years only. I don't think that there's any choice we have."

"Then let me prove my skills."

Harry shrugged, "Okay, how do you suggest that? It's not really like dueling has paper tests, and I'm not going to duel a first year."

"Let us duel your students. We can show you that we have skills."

Harry nodded, "Fine, show up next week and we can have you and your friends duel some of our students. If you win then you can be in the dueling club along with your friends.

"Thanks."

Scorpius left. Ginny looked at Harry, "I thought you said that you couldn't allow any younger years in?" Harry grinned, "I can't. But they can earn their way in. Remember my own first year, I was accepted onto the quidditch team even though I was first year. Hogwarts is a school of chances, skill beats out any other deciding factor. And also, remember the blond haired kid sitting next to Al and Rose? I bet you that they are friends, I saw them walking together. They look just like Ron, Hermione, and I used to. And I want to see what Albus has learned so far, and see if he's picked up anything from two generations of fighters."

"I... okay."


	10. Training

Scorpius pulled Al out of his bed on Saturday as Al was still rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He grabbed hold of Albus' elbow and yanked him from his bed to stand up at its side. Yesterday was their midnight Astronomy class, so the groggy Al didn't even know he was standing until he was collapsing to the ground. His head hit the side of his four poster bed and bounced him into a face plant on the carpet.

"Huh? Wha-? What's going on?" Al's muffled voice came from the floor.

"Rise and shine, Al" Scorpius told Al while he crouched at his side. "Time for practice."

Al lifted his head up from the carpet. "Practice? For what?"

"I just got us a spot on the advanced dueling club. But we need to win a duel against one of the clubs' students."

Al's eyes burst open, "What?"

"Yeah, they apparently don't the best that Hogwarts has to offer, so your dad is giving us a chance to prove ourselves."

"How'd you figure that out?"

"Watched through the keyhole."

"Oh."

Al hoisted himself up and hustled to put on his clothes, "So what do we need to do again? I was half sleeping when you said that part."

"Duel one of the students and win."

Al dropped the pants he was putting on. "What!" He exclaimed, then curbed his voice to avoid waking the whole school up. "They're sixth and seventh years. They won't lose to first years, no matter how bad at dueling they are. They just know more magic then we do, they can cast a hex at us and finish us off in one hit." He whispered vehemently.

Al's wand was lying on his bedstand and Scorpius picked it up and spun it deftly around his fingers.

"That's why we're practicing. I told you, I watched them from the keyhole and none of them are really on par with the quality your old man expects. A little bit of practice, some ingenuity, and a dash of luck, and it will be a simple win." Scorpius handed the wand to the now fully-clothed Al. "Just makes you wonder where all of the competent duelists are. We've got plenty, so where are they?"

Albus shrugged, "No clue. Well, either way, I'm ready to practice. Is Rose going to be coming with us?"

"Yeah, about that..."

Rose wasn't in the common room when they walked down, there were only a few girls in their third year sitting around the fire as they gossiped.

"Rose told me that in Hogwarts A History, it tells about how boys aren't allowed in the girls' dormitories. So we can't go up there and wake her up." Scorpius walked up to the bunch of girls gossiping and asked if they could go wake up Rose. But they merely turned up their noses and ignored him, keeping up the steady stream of gossip about the latest couples and how cute 'Professor Potter's' butt was. But when Scorpius walked away, he heard the words 'Scumbag Malfoy' and he had to bite his tongue to almost bleeding to not yell out a retort about the real scumbag in the Malfoy family: his grandfather.

"Yeah, I think that's a no." Scorpius told Al, "Maybe we should just wait for her to come down? We have all day to practice."

"Wait for who to come down?" A voice asked from the stairway leading to the girls' dormitories. Scorpius and Al turned to look at who said the words. The girl who was crying on the first day, Scorpius racked his brains for the name she was called in classes. Emma. Emma Nightly.

"Our friend Rose." Al told the girl, "Do you know her?"

She nodded.

"Can you wake her up for us?"

Another silent nod.

"Thanks."

Emma walked up the stairs. Once she was gone, Albus turned to Scorpius. "Who is she? I've never noticed her here before."

"Her name is Emma. I think that she's been at the back of all our classes staying quiet. She really doesn't have any friends to call her own, all her friends were in Ravenclaw. She was crying about that on the first day."

"Oh," Al looked forlornly at the staircase. "Maybe we should do something about that?"

Scorpius inclined his head to Al in agreement, "I was thinking the same." He put a hand on his chin and tugged on it, thinking hard and filling through his mind to come up with an idea. Then his fingers snapped together as one came to fruition in his brain.

"We have an odd number in our group, and one person would always have to sit out while the other two dueled. Invite her to go with us! It's a quick, easy way to make someone into a friend. You do things with them."

Albus nodded thoughtfully, "But how wou-"

"Hey guys, good morning." Rose said from the stairwell. Al instantly shut his mouth as Scorpius called back a greeting.

"What did you want me awake for? It's Saturday morning. The one day we can actually sleep in."

"You don't sleep in anyway." Al teased her, "You wake up early to read some books."

Al explained their opportunity after the friendly jibe.

"Seriously?! I could ask my mom about books we could get from the library to help us practice! I could even ask the teachers to help us!"

"you do that." Scorpius mentioned, then noticed Emma reappearing from the girls' dormitories. "Hey, Emma." Scorpius called out, "Are you doing anything this morning?"

Emma shrugged.

"Then come practice with us, we wanted to practice some spellwork. Do you want to come with us? It'll be fun."

The small girl brightened considerably. "I'll go get my wand."

Emma reappeared much faster this time, heaving slightly as she clutched a mahogany wand to her chest. "Let's go." She said.

Scorpius smiled, "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I'm not casting any spells until I have breakfast in my stomach, I hear that today there's some sort of an exotic jam to try out. After that I need to pick up a book from the library that has spells in it we can try out. Also, Al" Scorpius dragged al away from his conversation with Rose, "This is Emma. Emma, this is Al."

Rose came over to continue her conversation, and Scorpius introduced her as well.

The sun was barely breaking over the forest as the now group of four walked down to breakfast. As they walked, Al took a good look at Emma. He had noticed her once before in class, but never in detail. She mostly stayed in the back of class taking notes, and Albus was too busy trying hard not to make mistakes to watch a shy girl.

Emma was small, petite even, standing a whole head shorter than all of the others. Blond hair was cut below her shoulders and cpvered some of her face, hiding deep brown eyes with sharp angled eyebrows and high cheekbones.

"So where are you from?" The naturally curious Rose asked Emma.

"Oh, out around Tinworth. My house is out of the way of the whole town, we mostly just keep to ourselves."

Albus and Rose recognized the name. "We both have family out in Tinworth. Bill and Fleur? Do you know of them? They live in a place called Shell Cottage." Al told Emma and Emma took the thought and rolled with it.

"Bill and Fleur? They invite us over for tea at least once a week. They're so nice. I don't know why Bill always has a slightly bloodied meat meal though, is he just weird?"

Al had the tact not to reveal that Bill was bitten by Greyback.

"That's just how he prefers his meals."

They arrived at the Great Hall, and the smell of toast, waffles, pancakes, and other lovely breakfast creations greeted them. There was practically nobody up that early, so they got seats right in the middle of their table and dug in. Al loaded up a ton of syrup onto his pancakes while the other three decided to try out that new jam on their toast. Al asked them how it tastes like, and Rose told him that it tastes a lot like the plastic flavored Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. Al had nothing against plastic, so he tried a bit on his fork, and said it tasted not so much like plastic, then cardboard.

Scorpius made them stop by the library on the way there, saying that he had heard Harry mention something about a spell that the class should practice. And if the class would be practicing it, so should they.

They weren't the only ones thinking that, as two other Hufflepuff boys from the dueling club were there reading up on spells.

"So, Rose, where would you find books on a curse called the 'impediment curse'?" Scorpius asked. Rose pursed her lips, then walked off in a random direction deeper in the maze that was the Hogwarts library.

"I think that it's somewhere around here, ah- got it." She pulled out a book that had a purple cover with the words 'fun curses for the funny cursers' on the front. "This one should have the impediment curse in here."

They opened it up to the table of contents and found the impediment curse on page 769. "It's a curse that will freeze, or impede, your enemies. Seems useful." They went up front to ask one of the librarian assistants if they could take out the book, and they got it stamped.

"Return it by the fifteenth, or renew it." The assistant told them as they left. Scorpius assured her that they won't have it that long.

The blond first year led his small group out onto the grounds of Hogwarts, the field that was out past the west wing. They went behind a small grove of trees and opened the book.

"So the curse's spell saying is 'Impedimenta' and it shouldn't hurt. So why don't we take turns just casting the spell."

They practiced that for a while, then started practicing on each other. It took a few tries to get the spell right, but eventually they were able to hit each other easily, so they moved onto other spells. The babbling curse was a rather fun one, as when Rose couldn't say the words she quite wanted to she would make a very funny concentration face and keep trying to say her words.

"I'm sorry, what was that Rose?" Scorpius teased her. She just stared him down so intensely that Scorpius felt as if he was hit by the impediment curse, immovable, like in a snake's glare.

They practiced all the way until lunch started, and when their stomachs started yelling so loud that the others could actually hear them, they put down their wands and went inside.

Emma walked with them, a silent smile on her shy face, but excitement flashing behind her eyes. Maybe her friends in Ravenclaw could stay in Ravenclaw, Griffindor was just as nice. Her and Rose talked for a while over lunch, which was some of the best mac and cheese that they had ever tasted, mostly about the two dorks they were hanging out with.

"Scorpius is really considerate to people, which is odd as he gets teased more than anyone else in this school." As Rose told Emma this, some Mac and Cheese splattered against the back of Scorpius' head, oozing down into his robes. Scorpius' cheeks grew bright red, a brilliant contrast to his pale face. "And Al breaks under pressure, but if he's confident then he's really unstoppable." Al handed Scorpius a napkin.

"You guys are some of the more considerate people here." Emma said, "Nobody else here has done anything for me in the few months that we've all been here, and you were the first to show some sort of kindness. Most people just ignore me. I don't mind though." She added as Rose opened her mouth. "I actually like being at the back and watching the way that everyone else interacts with people. I bet that I know more about most people in our year, than anyone else at this whole school." She pointed to one of the Griffindors that were just sitting down.

"That one's name is Edward, he's a first year with us. Really bookwormy. But he prefers to be called Eddie. He actually has been running a little side-business selling maps to Harry Potter's most visited locations to the upper years. A galleon per map. I think he was just telling his friend that he's made around fifty galleons of recent?"

Rose looked at Eddie, then back to Emma. "You've figured out all that in such a short time? And you've done this for most other first year students?"

"Yeah. I had nothing else to do."

"Wow, you have an incredible mind."

"Thank you." Emma smiled. Yep, Griffindor wasn't that bad of a house at all.

A/N: So we've finally reached 10 chapters. YAY! BREAK OUT THE PARTY STREAMERS AND BALLOONS! But in all seriousness, I want to throw a shoutout to everybody who has followed, favorited, or reviewed. You guys are awesome to take the time out of your day to read my story, I feel so honored. After this little benchmark, the chapters are going to get longer, instead of around 1500 words per chapter, there's going to be 2000-2500. A little meatier for all of you who want more bang for your buck.

Also, please tell me ANY ideas you may have for this story. I want to hear everything you have to say, good or bad. I love hearing from people a good review that tells me what I did wrong because that means that I can fix that problem. I want to be giving you readers the best chapters I can, so drop a comment saying what could be better, or what ideas would be great for the story.

One person in particular that I want to throw a shoutout to is a reader named Lotusalchemist. You've been with the story from the start, and have given me so many good ideas and shown me how to write this story better. So thank you.

And As Always. Have A Great Day! Dlahm out.


	11. Practicing's abrupt end

"Impedimenta!" Emma yelled out, pointing her wand towards Al violently. The jet of red light hit Al and made him wince, but hardly slowed him down. Al waved a hand in front of his eyes to check out that he still had free movement.

"You need to practice more." Scorpius told Emma, "You're quite good, but it just isn't powerful enough. You need to put more into your magics, not hold back."

"Well I'm not exactly a child prodigy, now am I?" Emma put away her wand, getting a little bit angry. They had moved away from the babbling curse after lunch to further practice the impediment curse. Whatever skills they thought that they had before lunch apparently dissipated, leaving only the memory of doing well. Though even that was up to debate. Emma, Al, Scorpius, and Rose were trying desperately to blast each other into unmoving silence, but each could not do anything more than cause the target to flinch. Al got the closest, when he tried the curse on Scorpius, Scorpius couldn't move for a half second after being hit.

"Hey, Emma." Rose said, trying to placate the shy girl, "we all need practice. I mean, Albus is the son of Harry Potter and he still needs to practice as much as us."

"Hey. Don't remind me of the expectations everyone holds over me." Al told Rose, "It's hard enough to learn magic without having these massive shoes to fill."

"Sorry Al."

Rose pulled out her own wand, "take a break, Emma, I'll practice for a few rounds. Impedimenta!" The spell washed over Al, who winced again, but remained moving.

"Can someone else be the target?" He asked, "It is a little unpleasant when you flinch every ten seconds because of someone shooting you. Can I be the one to try the spell for once? I think I've been hit enough times."

Albus pulled out his own wand and shot his own impediment curse at Rose, "Ha!" he cried out as she flinched when it hit her. Rose frowned as she recovered from the shock.

"Do you really want to do this?" She asked playfully. "You might be Albus Potter, but my mom always outscored your dad."

Albus was ready for the mental warfare, "And my dad got your dads' sister. I think that's slightly better than grades."

Scorpius and Emma flinched as they heard the comebacks fly. They hadn't heard Rose and Albus' vocal sparring just yet, even though that was one of the things that Rose and Al used to do all the time whenever they visited each other. Just now, they had magic.

"You might have the better grades," Al was telling Rose, "But I also have Wingardium Leviosa!"

Rose floated up into the air, hanging around five feet above the ground. She crossed her arms over each other and glared at Al. "Really? Magic? We've never done it like this before."

Scorpius figured that this may be the right time for a little intervention. "Impedimenta!" He cried, pointing his wand at both Albus and Rose in turn. Both flinched as the spell hit them. Rose dropped to her feet as Al's magic wore off.

"Don't you think that we should stop this before it gets out of hand?"

Scorpius flinched the second his spell wore off as two impediment spells from Albus and Rose blasted him in his torso, "OOF, okay... we've had our fun."

The whole group broke out laughing.

"But in all seriousness, if we're going to get into the dueling club then we're going to need to practice." Albus said, "Let's get back to work on this." He stowed away his wand and waited for the next spell to hit him.

"Wait, the dueling club?" Emma asked, "What about the dueling club?"

Scorpius palmed his forehead, "Oh, sorry Emma, I forgot to tell you. We're practicing so that we can take on one person from the dueling club that Al's dad is teaching. I went up to him and asked him if my friends and I could join if we proved ourselves, so he told me that if we can beat one student from his club then we can be in it. So that's why we're practicing."

"You're telling me that I could be in the advanced dueling club with Harry Potter as my teacher? And Ginny Potter, ex-captain of the Hollyhead Harpies to teach me as well?"

Albus shrugged, "Well yeah, that's my mom and dad. They'd be some of the ones teaching us."

"I have posters of them in my room. I'm a massive fan of the Hollyhead Harpies, and I love playing quidditch. Your mom is so inspiring."

"Well then that's lucky for you. My mom and dad both played quidditch in Hogwarts, my dad was one of the best seekers they'd had since my grandfather had played, and my mom was just as good. They were a nearly unstoppable duo. Maybe I can ask them to give you a little one on one lesson..."

Emma gripped Albus' arms, "You can do that?"

"I am kind of their son."

Emma almost passed out.

"Hey, Al, what's going on here?" A voice said from the entrance of the grove of trees, it was James.

"Oh, hey James. We were just... practicing some magic. What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you."

"Oh."

James walked into the grove of trees, ducking as some of the branches scrapped his head. He looked around and saw Scorpius and Rose standing off to the side and Emma with a death grip on Albus' arms.

"Can I talk to you for a moment?" He asked Al, motioning for the two of them to move outside the small grove of trees. Al nodded, pried Emma's hands off of him, then followed his big brother. They walked outside the grove of trees and started a bit towards the castle, James turned around.

"Why are you friends with that blond kid?" He asked Al suddenly.

Al was struck off guard, "What?"

"Why are you friends with that blond kid, don't you know who his father and grandfather was? _Death eaters,_ Al. They weren't our friends. In fact, his father was one of our fathers' enemies when he was growing up, we've all heard stories about Draco Malfoy and his never ending hatred of Harry Potter. He tried to get our dad killed. If our dad was killed back then, where would we be today? We wouldn't be here discussing it, now would we?"

Albus had been expecting this from his brother for quite some time, the rivalry that was between Griffindor and Slytherin families was deeply instilled in him. "But he's much different from his dad or his granddad. He's not even in Slytherin, he's with us in Griffindor. Don't you think that counts for something?"

"Not when his whole legacy has been against us." James put his hands on Al's shoulders, "He's not a good influence on you. Don't you see how often he gets teased, you, and to an extent; me, we'll get teased as well soon enough. They'll consider us as 'conspiring with a known evil family' and tease us for that. I'm positive that somebody will not like that Scorpius is even alive and will start really teasing him, or worse. And I bet you that as soon as that kid gets tired of the teasing, he's going to show his true colors."

"No," Albus told James, "He's a good guy. He's endured all this teasing with us at his side, we've got to be with him as friends. And I don't like the way that you said 'to an extent: me'." A realization his Al, "You're just worried about your own skin."

"Al, I'm not, this is about you too."

"Sorry, James, but until Scorpius does what you just said, I'm sticking with him."

"Fine." James took his hands off of Albus and started walking back to the castle, "Just make sure you keep an eye on him."

Al didn't even look back at James as he walked back to the grove of trees. He ducked under the branches and walked inside, "Hey guys." He said as he walked through. He looked up and greeting his eyes was Scorpius, knocked out. Emma and Rose were both kneeling over him, trying to figure out what's wrong. Al rushed over to his friends' sides.

"What happened?" He asked frantically. Scanning Scorpius' body for signs of injury.

"We don't know," Rose told Al, "Scorpius just slumped over like that. We didn't see anything happen beforehand."

Al frantically searched Scorpius' body for some sort of markings. But there were none to tell what had happened. "We need to get him to the hospitality wing, let's try to pick him up."

The three first years wrapped their arms around Scorpius' body and hoisted him over their shoulders, they carried him out of the grove of trees but didn't get far before getting much too tired. It was an uphill slog to the castle, and with having to carry somebody, the slog was even harder.

They set his body down and wiped off sweat from their brow, then Albus had a great idea.

"Wingardium Leviosa." Albus pointed his wand at Scorpius' body. It floated five feet in the air.

"push him." Al told Rose and Emma, "I'll keep the spell up."

The two girls smiled at the ingenuity Al showed, they were able to push Scorpius all the way up to the castle and call for help. Professor Longbottom rushed around the entrance and looked at the scene.

"What happened?" He asked seriously.

"We don't know," Rose told him, "He just collapsed. We had to levitate him to get him up here."

Professor Longbottom searched Scorpius' body, "no markings," he muttered under his breath, "curious. We need to get him up to the Hospitality Wing. Only there could we maybe figure it out."

The Professor picked up Scorpius' body and carried him down several hallways to the hospital tower. Al, Rose, and Scorpius rushed behind him, telling him everything that might have happened.

"It could've been one of the people bullying him lately."

"A heart problem?"

"Maybe some sort of sickness?"

The list went on and on all the way to, "He forgot to breath."

"Please stop telling me what you think." Longbottom told them, "I doubt that any of those theories could be right. It's way too unlikely." The doors were closed to the hospital wing and Longbottom kicked the door several times as his hands were full.

"It's Longbottom, I've got an injured student."

One of the student matrons opened the door, "OH!" She squealed as she saw the unconscious first year in a teacher's arms, "come in, there's a bed on the right that he can have. OI Madame Abott! There's a student out here who's passed out."

The matron came out of her office, Hannah Abott. "What's wrong." She asked, all business.

"Hannah, these students walked up to the school calling for help. When I got there, I saw that they were carrying one of their friends. They say that they don't know what happened, but he suddenly passed out. There's no markings on his body."

"Well." Hannah said, "Did you possibly check to see if he's breathing?"

"I- no. Did you, Potter, Weasley, Malfoy, did you check?"

A resounding 'no' was the answer from all three.

Madame Abott put her head to Scorpius' chest, "We're lucky, his heartbeat is steady and he's breathing." She snapped her fingers at the student matron, "did they say that they checked his head?"

"No ma'am."

Madame Abott checked all around Scorpius' head, on the back was some caked over blood. The bleeding had apparently stopped, but there was still a big gash where the blood was.

"Did anyone even BOTHER TO CONSIDER THAT IT MIGHT BE A HEAD INJURY!" She rushed around the wing, grabbing medical supplies and treating the bang to the back of his head.

Professor Longbottom whispered to the other first years, "She was like this when she was in Hogwarts. Believe me."

"Don't be telling them any stories about me, Neville. I heard you."

Professor Longbottom snickered, "Okay, Hannah."

Madame Abott kept applying a certain salve to the back of Scorpius' head, until the caked blood seemed to melt off, and there was no scar. His blond hair was a bit discolored though, revealing where the blood had been.

"He needs rest." She told the other first years and Professor Longbottom, "The old matron, Madame Pomfrey, always told us student matrons that the best thing a person can have while recovering is rest. So please leave." When Al opened his mouth she added, "I'll get a teacher to tell you how he's doing and when you can see him, but for now please leave."

They did so, not risking the anger of a healer. Longbottom went his own way, and the three first years walked back up to the Griffindor common room, talking about what had just happened. Al was thinking to himself, and remembered what his brother James had said, ' _I'm positive that somebody will not like that Scorpius is even alive and will start really teasing him, or worse_ '.

"What do you think happened to Scorpius, Al?" Emma asked.

Al stopped confining his thoughts in his own mind and said them out loud, "I think that we need to do like my dad did when he was in school, and start digging for answers."


	12. Investigation

"What could have happened to him?" Rose asked Emma and Al, "He was laughing one moment at a joke and slumping over the next, he didn't even scream or shake. It was like he wasn't even touched at all." They walked in the general direction of the great staircase and Griffindor Common Room, minds racing as each formulated their own theory on what happened.

"Maybe..." Albus started, but he didn't get far into his sentence until Emma interrupted him. "We need to check the area where Scorpius fell, we were so concerned with Scorpius that we didn't look at anything else. There might have been some sort of animal that hit him."

Al nodded and waved his hand to Emma, "Stole the words right from my mouth. Let's do this like my Dad used to, snoop around for a while. I've heard hundreds of stories about his exploits in Hogwarts, makes sense that we do the same if given the chance."

They strode out onto the grounds and made their way to the grove of trees. Their cloaks billowed out behind them as they walked, an afternoon breeze blowing through their clothes on its way past the forbidden forest. The spread out clothing caught on the trees lower hanging branches as they ducked underneath, but a swift tug broke the branch that was hanging on.

Albus was silent as Rose and Emma walked over to where they said Scorpius had collapsed. He took a look around the area.

No evidence rewarded his efforts. Not even a little blood or even hair, or even some pieces of cloak, absolutely nothing.

"There has to be some sort of evidence." Albus muttered under his breath, "They couldn't cover everything up, nobody's perfect."

"Who's 'They'?" Rose asked Al, "You're talking like somebody else tried to hurt Scorpius."

Al told her about his discussion with James, pretty soon she was murmuring the same words and searching with him. "Nobody can dissaparate on Hogwarts grounds, there has to be evidence."

Emma also asked the same thing and, getting the same explanation, began wondering aloud all of the possibilities.

"Perhaps they hit him in the back of the head with a rock?"

"There's no rocks over here with bloodstains," Answered Al, checking the rocks as he did so, "and anyway, anyone who has half a brain cell would take the rock away the second we left."

"What about a spell?"

"Do we know any concussive spells of that power?"

"It could've been a higher year, they don't like Scorpius either."

Albus frowned, his dad once told him about a spell that acted like he had slashed a sword. _Could this be that spell? Dad would know, wait!_ Al snapped his fingers, "Dad." He smiled, an odd look for somebody who had been scowling moments ago.

"What?" Emma asked.

"My dad, he would know. He would help us anyway."

Emma's eyes widened, "Your dad, Harry Potter, help us?"

Al's annoyance at the repetition was overwhelmed by his excitement. "Yes. Now we just have to find him, I haven't talked to him or my mom much since they arrived. So I don't really know where they would be."

It was Emma's turn to be excited at a good idea, "We could ask... Eddie." She frowned a little as she said the name.

"Eddie?" Rose asked.

"Yes, Eddie. He's been mapping out the areas Albus' dad spends the most time at. Sells the maps at one galleon per, I told you about him at lunch."

Al was taken aback, "He stalks my dad, and maps out where he spends his free time, then sells my dad's whereabouts to people who would pay for that?" He asked.

"Yep." Came the answer.

"Oh god." Al's face turned beet red, contrasting with his black hair, "Sometimes I wish that my dad wasn't famous. The price for fame is your privacy, and this is one of those times that I wish that my dad wasn't famous."

Emma smiled compassionately. She couldn't contemplate how famous people do it, she was much too shy for fame. "I understand how weird that must be for you, but let's go find Eddie."

Rose agreed with Emma and, somewhat reluctantly and embarrassed, Al decided to go with them to buy a map from Edward. They found him in the library working on Transfiguration homework, a foot long parchment on switching spells. They'd earned his homework after one of the other first years switched her leg with the leg of her desk.

"Hi, Emma!" Edward said cheerfully as they approached. He was the same guy that Al and Scorpius shared their dorm with, the book worm. Eddie put up the book he was studying out of, "Changed your mind on my offer? I have some fourth year friends who could get us some firewhisky from the pub in Hogsmead."

"I'll pass on that, you're so bor..." Emma's voice fell away into a shy whisper and Rose picked up on what they came for.

"How much for a map." She said directly, crossing her arms.

"Ten galleons."

"Ten?" Emma found her voice back and it returned in full indigence, "You were selling them for one galleon yesterday!"

Eddie's face was as impassive as a stone wall, "Prices went up in the oh... last ten seconds. When you turned down my offer for a third time, I'm into shy girls, I get that. But you don't need to play hard to get so well."

Albus took a step in front of Emma, "What kind of an offer did you give to her?"

"She denied the gracious offer of going out with me."

"So what?" Emma cried out, "We're only first years, save your cheesy tactics and boring anecdotes until later."

"Fifteen galleons."

"You son of a- Impedimenta!"

Albus watched as the jet of light, amplified by Emma's annoyance and anger, splashed into Eddie. The books near him rustled their pages from the power of the curse, and some even flipped to random pages as it went by. Eddie, now immobilized, slumped over in his chair, knocking a bag lying on the back of the chair to the ground. Maps spilled from the bag, littering the ground, and Al placed two galleons on the desk Eddie was sitting at.

"Here you go, a good deal. Emma's not the one buying, now is she, and this is about my dad, not about you making a quick sickle." Al took one of the maps and left before Madame Pince investigated the sounds of magic being used in the library.

On the front side of the parchment was a very basic map of Hogwarts with small red dots on it. Each dot had a corresponding number on the front of the dots, and the back of the parchment. On the back the numbers all had locations correlating with the map on the front page. All the way from

1: Rooms above the Transfiguration Hallway: Possibly the rooms he lives in, do not stalk here unless absolutely necessary.

to

23: Greenhouses: visited Professor Sprout.

So Albus, Rose, and Emma began visiting the points in order. It was quick work as when they visited the locations above the Transfiguration Hallways and knocked, Ginny answered the door.

"We aren't doing any autogra- Oh, Albus, Hi!"

"Hi, mom."

Emma was almost breathless as she looked at Ginny, "You're Ginny Potter. Ex-captain of the Hollyhead Harpies. You retired before I was born, but I saw you play with them when they invited you back for the exhibition game against London six years ago. You inspired me to start playing chaser on my own local team. I'm one of your biggest fans."

Ginny looked at Emma skeptically, "A friend of yours, Al?"

Emma looked at Albus with pleading eyes. Al had only known her the good portion of a day but, "Yeah." Albus told his mom, "She's a friend of mind."

Ginny's skeptical look vanished and she eyed Emma pleasantly, "Well if that's the case then I'm honored. Thank you for supporting me, but I don't play professional quidditch any more."

"Please teach me a few moves."

"Maybe some other weekend, I feel that you are here for some other reason?"

Albus nodded, "Yes, is Dad here? We need to talk to him."

"He's down the hall and to the right." Ginny pointed, "I think he's planning the next lesson for the dueling club. I heard that you guys are going to try out for it, but," She finally noticed, "Where's the blond kid who you have been talking to?"

"That's why we need to see Dad."

She led them right in. "Thanks Mom," Albus said, hugging Ginny as he went inside and his friends followed. His dad was where Ginny had said, at a desk working on the lesson plan. But as he saw them walk in his mood brightened considerably, "Hey, Al. How is school?"

"I need your help, Dad. One of our friends has been hurt."

Harry's bright nature soured, "Where." He asked, his father face replaced by his Auror face. Al told him and Harry got up right away and put on his glasses, "Come with me, son. And bring your friends too."

Harry strode out across the grounds just as Al had when they were going to investigate, just this time the three first years were in tow of the Head of The Auror Office in the Ministry of Magic. They walked through the trees and Rose pointed to where Scorpius fell. Harry took out his wand and muttered "Aparecium" while tapping rocks nearby, nothing happened.

"Homenum Revelio." He then muttered, looking out beyond the grove, also nothing. "Well there's nobody around who bothered to drop a little note on why they did this." Harry told his entourage of students. "But maybe."

Harry waved his wand over the flattened grass that Scorpius fell onto, a small wispy substance appeared there. "Gotcha." The wispy substance formed a small ball with smoke coming off of it, it then went backwards towards the forbidden forest.

The Auror stood up, brushing dirt off of his cloak, "We need to go that way." He told Al and the others, pointing towards the forbidden forest.

"Dad?" Al said, pointing at a little more of the wispy substance, which was making a new form. A snake wrapping itself around a skull, slithering between jaws and eyes, never stopping, never revealing any more of itself. "What's that?"

Al's father looked at it, then saw his son staring deeply into the snake. Harry dashed his wand through the substance and scattered it. "Nothing, that was nothing."

"The dark mark." Rose said, her eyes glazed over.

Harry sighed, no sense in beating around the bush now. "Did you mother have you read 'A rise and Fall of the Dark Arts"? Rose nodded, "Then, yes. That is the dark mark. The sign of Voldemort, the dark wizard whom I defeated before you all were born. The followers of Voldemort would use this symbol as their own, instilling fear in people whenever somebody saw the mark."

"But what does it mean, Dad?"

"I don't know, Al. The death eaters were wiped out years ago. I did it personally. Maybe a student decided it would be a good practical joke." Harry's forehead began to tingle, a feeling he hadn't felt since Voldemort was wiped out. Sweat began to bead on his head and he wiped it off, stress from lying to his son, but necessary. "You should head in to the castle, Al. I can handle it from here. Also, dinner is being prepared, don't want to be late for that."

The sun was still setting, but Al could see that his dad needed time to think, so he motioned for the others to follow him. He made his way out of the grove and back up to the castle. The second that Al was out of sight, Harry mumbled the spell "Apericium" Again.

Out of the vision of where Al had been, a small bit of parchment revealed itself from where it was magically hidden.

 _A little warning for the boy who lived._

 _Your own boy was close to losing his head, but we settled on his little friend. Maybe we won't settle on just hurting him next time, but that would be stupid: we're here to make you feel like there's nothing you can do. We won't kill anyone just yet, but if you wait too long then there'll be a nasty surprise coming. But you know that if you tell your children then they'll be killed quicker, don't you. Oh, boy who lived, your children have no clue what will be waiting for them when their time comes, and they will remain that way until the end... unless you wish for their heads to be placed at your knees earlier._

 _It looks like this stone is gaining its momentum. Try, boy who lived, try to stop us. You may just yet figure out a way, but that won't be enough time... it'll come to you when you see your two boys and your friend's children lowered into graves. And at that moment you'll break, and at that moment we will kill you._

 _And this time you will accept the death that awaits you, not hide behind Dumbledore as he made sure that you never saw harm._

 _With your leave,_

 _Torturer's hand._

Harry took the parchment and stuffed it into his pocket, heat rising in his stomach to reach his head. "You will not take my sons from me." A thought came to Harry, and he took the parchment from where he just put it and held it over his wand.

"Flagrate."

Harry walked back towards the castle, the note's ashes scattered to the wind.


	13. Into the Forest

The first thing Harry did was look for his friends. The first one that he saw was Ron. Ron was in the entrance hallway talking to one of the dueling club students. When he saw Harry he waved and finished his conversation.

"So make sure that it's a slashing motion with the wand, keep practicing." The student walked off, stowing his wand away. "So what's up, Harry?"

"We need to go into the Forbidden Forest, something attacked Al and Rose's friend. Do you know where Hermione is right now?"

"Hogsmeade. But what about Ginny?"

"Don't think she should go with us this time."

Ron chuckled and they started going right back the way Harry came, back to the grounds. "You know what my little sister would say if she heard you say that."

"Something along the lines of," Harry put on a falsetta, " _Harry Potter I can take care of myself just as well as anybody else, and you know it_." He dropped the higher pitch. "Odds are that I'd receive a bat-bogey to the face right after that."

Harry pointed to a spot in the Forbidden Forest, "That's where I determined the attack originated from." Ron and Harry started walking towards it.

"So why don't you want Ginny coming with us?" Ron asked.

"We should have someone stay at Hogwarts in case something happens. What if they're luring us to the forest, could be a trap and we might need somebody to remain behind just in case."

Harry pulled out his faithful wand as they entered the line of trees, Ron did the same. They wandered past the first few trees and a wave of memories returned to Harry.

"I wonder if the car is still here." Ron told Harry, "That would be cool."

"Probably has a dead battery after so long. It's been too many years for that thing to not have run out of gas or died. Hey, didn't you give your dad a different car recently?"

"Yeah, mini cooper. He's already got it flying."

They talked about flying cars for a while while they searched the area. Ten minutes passed without them finding any evidence of who may have attacked Al and Rose. There were no footprints, crushed plants, or broken branches; absolutely nothing that could've helped determine which way a person may have run. Harry kept using the revealing charm: Apericium, but that was also useless.

"Homenum Revelio." Harry switched up his spell, looking instead for human presence. The answer washed over him as the spell spread out. Harry pointed towards a grouping of rotted logs. He dropped himself into a crouch behind a small bush, gesturing for Ron to do the same.

"There's two people over there." Harry pointed at the logs, "I don't know if they're Death Eaters or not, but be ready for anything."

Harry held out his wand at the logs. "Whoever is there, come out. Nobody is allowed back here." Harry let his voice carry all the way past his logs.

Something stirred behind the logs, dirt clods crumbling and dissolving as they fell from the front of the logs, rot shaking itself off as something moved. Harry kept his sight, and his wand, pointed at a spot right above the log; where a head would be if it looked up. Ron held his cover, his own wand copying Harry's. The stirring behind the logs stopped, a cloaked head looked out from on top, right in the line of sight of Harry.

"Just come out." Harry called, "We don't want any trouble." Harry stood up a bit, relaxing into a half crouch.

"Stupefy!"

A jet of red light flew from a wand some three feet to the right of the peeking head.

Harry ducked, the jet splashing harmlessly against a distant tree behind Harry. When he was able to look again, the peeking head now replaced by an arm and a wand.

From the log came a girl's voice, "Petrificus Totalus!" And the curse flew, not even getting close to Harry or Ron due to not being aimed.

Harry shot out of cover, "Stupefy!", and ducked back down. Hitting his target wasn't his goal, but seeing his area was.

From the limited glance, Harry determined the logs were in a U shape, and at the right end was another log jutting out from the U. One person must be hidden in the U, the girl's voice, and somebody must be behind the jutting log.

"Give me cover." Harry called to Ron. Ron nodded and began shooting spells haphazardly at the logs, just shooting them into the logs to keep their two assailants under cover.

Harry rushed from his bush to a tree on his left, then another, making his way around the U. He made it halfway before seeing a spell pass two inches in front of his face. He could feel the wind on the spell blow by him, rushing through his hair.

He ducked back to the last tree, firing off a trip jinx as he went. He flung his back against the tree and bark dug into his cloak to poke his skin.

They still weren't able to tell anything about their attackers, the cloaks covered every inch of skin.

"Expulso!" The girl screamed. Ron dove away as his bush cover was decimated by the ensuing explosion. Pieces of wood chips and leaves slapped him as he rolled away behind another bush on his right.

"So that's how you play." Harry grumbled to himself, then fired his own spell. "Reducto!"

Harry fired downwards at the cover hiding the girl, nodding grimly as the log disintegrated and she was forced to retreat. Whoever the girl's companion was; he retreated with her as well, sending spells over his shoulder as he joined her.

Ron returned fire from new cover he'd moved to as the girl retreated, a stone pillar some ten feet away from Harry. "Impedimenta!" Ron bawled, aiming at the boy. The boy saw the spell coming and moved out of the way, but the girl was not so lucky. The spell completely missed the boy to hit the girl in the center of her naval.

She screamed as she was hit, falling backwards to be as immobile as Ron's cover. The guy ducked down and picked her up over his shoulder. He started to run away as Harry and Ron tried their hardest to give chase and send spells at him. While he ran, he turned around once to aim at the guy who hit his partner.

"Expulso!"

The spell landed at Ron's feet. The dirt ruptured like a volcano had sprouted from the ground. Dirt clods, rocks, leaves, all went sky-high from the explosion. Ron's body soon followed the lighter objects. Ron was thrown back into the air by the force of the spell and flew into a tree, slumping over, he didn't move from where he lay.

Harry stopped his pursuit and checked on his friend. No serious bleeding, he was only knocked out. Harry got up to continue his chase, then paused. The Forbidden Forest must still be home to magical beasts, leaving Ron here was an easy death sentence.

The guy and his companion got away, and Harry let them go as he carried Ron's unconscious body out of the forest and back to the castle. On his way, Harry ran into Hermione who was returning from Hogsmeade with Firewhisky and Butterbeer. She almost dropped the bag she was carrying when she saw Ron.

"Oh my God, is he okay? What happened?" She frantically rushed over to her husband's side.

"We went into the Forest in order to investigate something I found out. Two people in black cloaks attacked us as we looked. Ron hit one of the attackers with Impedimenta, but he was knocked out seconds later. I let them go so I could get him back to safety before an animal, or worse, got to him."

"Are the Skrewts still in the forest?" Hermione asked, remembering the beasts of their fourth year.

"Maybe, but I didn't want Ron to find out the hard way."

Hermione searched Ron for injuries, finding none she pulled out her wand and did some deft spellwork that made Ron's unconscious body follow Harry and her in mid-air as they walked. They walked straight back to the castle and made a beeline for the hospitality wing. They strode through the doors and set Ron down on a bed, by the time the matron was walking over, the work was done.

"I'm sorry," The student matron said, "But what is this?"

"He's been knocked out."

"I can see that. One sec, let's get the matron. Oi! Madame Abott!"

Hanah Abott came out of her office for the second time today to see an unconscious person, she sighed. "Will the madness ever stop? What happened?"

"He was knocked out. Hannah, is that you?" Harry asked.

"Yes it is me, Harry, I'm the matron now. Didn't your boy James tell you that? He came in last year with a massive lump the size of a quaffle on his elbow, I told him once he was fixed that he should tell his dad who's working here now."

Harry put a hand behind his head, "I guess he forgot to mention that. So, any help for Ron here?"

"Rest." Came the age-old answer. "Lots of rest."

It was at this moment that Ron chose to wake up. He mumbled and put a hand to his head, rubbing his eyes and ginger hair. He tried to sit up, but Hannah pushed him back down before he could get far.

"I said rest." She told him firmly.

"Oi, what the heck... Hannah? Where am I?"

Hannah walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a small chest, inside there was a piece of never-melting ice. She gave that to Ron to put on his head, "You're in the Hospitality wing. You were knocked out."

"Oh." Ron looked over to Harry, "Did they really get me? Hard to imagine, maybe I'm out of practice."

Hermione rushed over and hugged Ron. Then opened up her bag to reveal the drinks. "I'm so glad you're okay." She whispered while handing him a little bottle of butterbeer that came from the Three Broomsticks.

Ron kept looking at Harry, who nodded. "They got you all right. But I don't think that there was really any chance of you dodging, I had to drag you out of the Forbidden Forest before something else got you. It would be bad if we go through all that we had and a lousy Acromantula decides you're a tasty unconscious treat."

Ron had to agree with that logic, "But then they got away?"

"Yeah."

"We at least know that they're from Hogwarts."

A surprised look crossed Harry's face, "How do you know that?"

"One of them had a Ravenclaw prefect badge on, I saw it when their cloaks billowed while running, and the other had a Griffindor cloak. Standard issue for people who didn't bring their own. Now we know that their here, and we can bring them down." Ron sipped out of his glass of Butterbeer and relaxed, "Oh that's the good stuff. Rosmerta hasn't lost her touch in brewing these."

Harry smiled, "I hope that we can find them." An image of Albus bleeding went through his mind, "Or that wouldn't be the best outcome."


	14. Out of the Hospitality Wing

Scorpius felt like he was floating, his body up in clouds. His eyes were closed, but it felt as if there was no ground under his feet. As he floated, the back of his head floated down to rest on something soft. He opened his eyes and realized he was lying on a white bed, covered by a pure white sheet and surrounded by countless other beds with the same color scheme. He sat up and looked around, turning his head to observe the room: the Hospitality Wing. As his head turned, a sharp pain struck in the back of his head. Scorpius gripped his head and the pain lowered to a dull throbbing at the base of his skull.

 _Why am I here? What happened?_ Scorpius wondered to himself. As he thought this, the matron left her office and walked outside to check on her patients. She instantly noticed Scorpius awake and nodded to him as she checked the other patients. When she came around the room to Scorpius, he had already seen most of the other patients in the room. A seventh year girl who had antlers. A third year with a broken leg. A sixth year girl who looked as if she'd been attacked by explosive makeup containers, no joke she was covered in the stuff. And a red head who was about as old as the younger teachers.

"How are you feeling?" Madame Abott asked Scorpius, holding a checklist in hand as she did so. "Any pains, discomforts, or questions you wanted to ask?"

"Why am I here?"

Madame Abott set down the clipboard. "You received trauma to the back of your head. You were dropped off earlier by a few other students who were near you when you were knocked out by the trauma. You've been in the Hospitality Wing for around five hours, you would've had been here longer if not for a trick that my old teacher taught to me."

She checked Scorpius' head for bruising, "You've got a large bruise on the back of your head, but that should go away with one rub of this." Madame Abott pulled out a cream that had a label saying 'Weasley Wizard Wheezes Entirely Serious Bruise Remover'. She popped the cap off and dragged her finger through it to place a dollop of the cream on Scorpius' neck. After rubbing it in, she invited Scorpius to touch and move his neck, he did so without any pain.

"Thank you Madame Abott."

"You aren't leaving just yet, Mister Malfoy. It's required by school regulations, and my own personal regulations, that you stay here for at least two hours after regaining consciousness."

Scorpius looked at Madame Abott pleadingly, but it did no good. She moved on to the next bed and dealt with another patient, another first year boy who had bandages wrapping tightly around his torso. Scorpius merely sat in his bed, nothing to do, just watching the other patients be dealt with by Madame Abott or her student matrons. Every now and then another patient would wake up for a short amount of time and talk to Scorpius for a bit, but they always went back to sleep from boredom.

Then the red-headed guy woke up.

He was lying on his bed haphazardly with one arm hanging over the edge, snoring, and his arm swung in sleep to accidentally punch the edge of his bed. The red-head snorted and lifted his head, looking at his hand to see what happened. After investigating the mysterious feeling in his fist, he tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't. No matter how many times he fluffed his pillow or rolled over, the snores never restarted.

"Hard time sleeping?" Scorpius asked the red-head from across the room. The red-head looked up and Scorpius recognized Mister Potter's helper: Ron Weasley, Rose's dad.

"Yeah," Ron said, "It's tough... I don't remember the beds being this hard when I was in school." Another pillow fluff, another rotation in bed. "Hey," Ron also recognized the blond he was talking to, "Weren't you the student who is trying out for the dueling club?"

Scorpius nodded and Ron continued, "Well, you might want to recover before the next club's meeting. I don't think you could actually duel from this bed."

"Well, I'm going to be out today. So that takes care of that."

"Good."

Ron rolled over again and snores ensued from that general direction of the Hospitality Wing. Scorpius smiled, _Practice didn't go end so well, perhaps we won't be able to duel to our finest ability. No,_ Scorpius reconciled his previous thought, _We've got just as much skill as I saw the other duelists with when I watched them through the keyhole. Perhaps we've got a chance._ He looked around the Hospitality Wing, _I'm not leaving here any time soon, maybe I should make use of this time._

The two hours passed quickly after that, Scorpius using this time to think of new ways to practice dueling. _Things that,_ he decided, _would be very useful for when Rose, Emma, Albus, and I are training._

"You're free to go." One of the student Matrons told him. He looked up into the eyes of a fifth year girl and thanked her. "You're welcome. Stay safe." Scorpius promised her that he would and left quickly, eager to find his friends.

Scorpius wandered the Great Staircase, making his way up to the Griffindor Common Room. There were students sprawled everywhere on the couches and around the fire. Out the window, there was darkness falling, curfew must have been on its way as even more of the Griffindors kept arriving. Scorpius took up to his room, nobody there, and then went right back down to relax in front of the fire. His friends would be here soon enough.

James Potter walked through the portrait and saw Scorpius. He walked right to him and sat down in one of the armchairs that surrounded the fire.

"Are you okay?" He asked, sounding concerned. "I had heard that you were taken up to the Hospitality Wing. Al told me you passed out. Don't tell me," James mentioned somberly, interrupting Scorpius as Scorpius opened his mouth, "Al broke wind. I'm surprised you didn't die from that, I've had to use the bubble head charm for days on end because of him."

Scorpius closed his mouth... the absurdity of it getting to him. He paused for a moment, then broke out in laughter.

"Are you sure you're okay?" James said, "That joke wasn't even that good. Maybe you've got some brain damage." James kept Scorpius amused for around thirty minutes until the portrait door opened and in walked Rose, Al, and Emma. Al noticed Scorpius and James instantly and even jogged to where his friend was.

"Are you okay?" He echoed his older brother.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Scorpius told him, "I got some rest in the Hospitality Wing and left once I could. I came in here to wait for you guys and your older brother found me." Scorpius gathered a tone reminiscent of James', "He told me some interesting stories about your *ahem* bowels. Did you really clear out your sixth birthday party with one well placed..." He stopped as Albus' face turned instantly pink. Rose and Emma both turned to look at Albus and giggled at seeing his now magenta skin coloring.

"I'm was just teasing ya, little bro. It's my job to embarrass you with your friends. " James said, placing an arm around Al's shoulders. "We all know that it was me who cleared that out with a dung bomb."

"Yeah... I remember that too well." Rose told Emma, "We were in the middle of a quidditch game when his whole family runs out of the house holding their noses, followed by all Al's friends and their families. Since then, they've always confiscated James' stock before throwing a party, but I still think that it was my dad who was providing the dung bombs."

"And who's your dad?"

"Ron Weasley, co-owner of Weasley Wizard Wheezes."

It turned out that Emma had never heard of the joke stores, and that conversation took the two girls well into the night while the boys were joking around at James' past pranks. After a funny story about making the house snow, James retired for the night, leaving Albus and Scorpius to talk with Emma and Rose. Scorpius found this the right time to _introduce_ the ideas he came up with while in the Hospitality Wing.

The ideas were well received and the others built on them to refine the ideas into something actually do-able.

The next day was still the weekend, but Rose told them all that they would most likely need to get their homework done before the weekend was over. Al, unfortunately, had to agree with her. So instead of practicing dueling, they studied the first Vampire Treaty. In the library Emma kept mostly silent, keen to let the others do the talking.

"She's still really shy." Albus whispered to Scorpius as Emma was distracted by Rose telling her about a certain book she had picked up a few days ago.

"Yes, but she's made a lot of progress in one day. All she really needed was some people who would held her out, give her a chance. I think that she believes us to be her friends."

"Well, I'm in no hurry to correct her. She's nice."

"Yeah."

They studied the whole day. Spending it all in the library. A waste if you asked Al or Scorpius, but to Rose it was paradise. She felt like that was what school was all about.

Throughout the whole week they worked hard, getting in practice whenever they could. Scorpius was a key part in this, guiding his friends with practice and new spells every day. He even talked to the teachers to get their advice on it.

Flitwick told him that he should never underestimate the power of charms when messing with opponent's surroundings or their confidence. That day they practiced using the surroundings to interrupt someone's spells or their cover. Albus particularly liked using _Wingardium Leviosa_ to raise a person's cover into the air then smack them with _impedimenta._

Professor Longbottom mentioned keeping some sort of hidden extra up your sleeve, something nobody would expect. He suggested some sort of spell would do it.

Eventually the day came around that they knew they'd need to finally put what they'd been learning into practice. The sun was early, Scorpius was earlier. He was up before the sun had risen pacing the common room remembering spells that they'd learned out of books and from teacher's suggestions. Al opened his own eyes from sleep's grasp and looked at Scorpius' bed.

"Hey man, are you ready fo- oh." The bed was without its occupant. Al hurriedly got on his clothes and thundered down the stairs to see Scorpius in the common room. "Are you ready, Scorpius?"

"Huh- oh yeah," Scorpius said, placing his wand away in his robes. "Are you?"

Albus shrugged, "Ready as I'll ever be. Only problem is all the classes that're in the way of the dueling club tonight. Geez, I can't take one more day of boring old Professor Binns and his vampires."

"Just survive... just survive."

They went down to breakfast, and partway through was joined by Rose. She sat down rubbing sleep from her eyes and buttering up some toast. Some butter got on her finger but she was too tired to wipe it off, merely rubbed her hand halfheartedly against the table. Scorpius and Al watched her with muted interest.

"Rose," Scorpius asked, "Are you okay? You seem tired."

"Didn't... sleep. Reading... too late. Trying... for... new spells... don't... judge... me."

"Too late."

"Where's... Emma... didn't... go to bed... last night." Rose then let her head drop onto the table and light breathing came from her. Al looked at Scorpius, "Emma? I remember her going back to the common room last night."

"Me too."

"This might not be good. I don't want to go into the dueling club without her tonight. Want to look for her?"

"Yeah. Where to first?"

Al and Scorpius got up from the table, leaving Rose sleeping in her toast. They agreed on splitting up to look, Scorpius going back to the common room and Al checking the grounds.

Al walked right out, the time limit before classes begin all too present in his mind. He walked the whole grounds, checking anywhere that could be possible. Though when he got all the way around the castle he saw two people walking back, one in front of the other walking quickly. The one in front had Emma's dusty blond hair. Al listened in as he ran to get closer.

"GET AWAY EDWARD!"

Al sighed, Emma had Edward literally chasing after her. And Al ran after her.

A/N: I'm sorry it's a day late, I was very busy these past few days with Smash Brothers Tournaments. I love Project M! As usual: Leave a comment with your suggestions on how I could do better or how you think the story is going. I love hearing from you guys so please do so! Have A Great Day!


	15. The club

"Dang it, Edward." Al mumbled, "Just leave her alone." Edward had, in fact, tried multiple times to ask Emma out since Scorpius got out of the hospitality wing. He often interrupted their practice for the dueling club to do so. After the fourth time in a single day that he'd crashed through the grove of trees to ask Emma, Albus had the long overdue idea to move their practice location elsewhere. Never the less, Edward found them wherever they were practicing.

 _But now he's gone too far,_ Al thought as he raced after them, _Literally chasing a girl down to ask her out? That's not right._

As Albus watched, Edward changed pace, breaking out into a jog. Al heard from his point forty feet away Edward yell out: "Wait, Em, I need to tell you something!"

Emma heard Edward, turned around to see him almost running towards her, and then started sprinting towards the entrance of the castle. As soon as Edward saw Emma running, he became quiet and tried desperately to catch up with her. He was sprinting as fast as he could go, which wasn't very fast as he spent little time exercising and a lot of time reading.

Thankfully, Albus was in much better shape then the shy Emma or bookworm Edward due to his mother and father's training him for playing quidditch. Despite being only a first year, he was just as fast as third year quidditch seekers and stronger than a few beaters. It was only stress and the fact that first years can't play quidditch standing in his way, despite the fact that he considered himself to not be that good on a broom.

It was relatively easy to keep track of Emma and Edward despite their head start. In less than a minute after Edward entered the school, Al had caught up with him.

"What in the world are you doing?" Al yelled, putting a hand on Edward's shoulder and yanking him around to stop him. "What warrants you chasing her down. She's told you that she's not interested in you, go chase after some other blond." The spite was more than evident.

Edward caught his breath from the sprinting, "Fine. _Cough Cough,_ I'm done trying to..." He paused, "Getting her to be with me. I quit!"

Albus expected more fight from the stubborn bookworm, Edward just... stopping... surprised Al.

"Uh... okay, glad I got through to you."

Al left Edward there and continued to chase after Emma. She was running up the grand staircase like Edward was still after her and only slowed down when Al called after her. He was surprised to see that she she was still going strong with her pace while going up the stairs.

"Hey, Emma! Slow down! Edward's not chasing you now, and I'm not so sure everybody wants to hear us thunder up the stairs. Might wake them up."

Emma turned to notice the absence of Edward and the black haired Albus who took his place. She slowed down to a stop in front of a painting of a knight, chest heaving from the sprinting she'd done.

"What happened to Edward?" She asked while out of breath.

"I stopped him and he sort of quit. Well, only sort of; I doubt he'll actually stop chasing after you, that doesn't seem like something he'd do. He's much too stubborn." A noise in the knight's painting drew both of their attention to the painting.

The knight in the painting seemed to be staring at Albus, but Al couldn't tell due to the metal visor over his eyes. At his side was a fat gray pony that was nibbling on the grassy ground of his painting, which was of a field. Something about the knight tickled a memory in Al's subconscious, something his father had told him about a mad knight in a portrait. But the memory was from when Al was a child, and it wasn't easy to try and remember.

The armored man lifted up his visor to reveal his eyes, and a voice came from the painting.

"I say, sir, do I know you?" He said to Al, "No, this boy may look like him, but the scar isn't there. And anyway he'd be much older by now."

The knight seemed to be talking to somebody else now, but there was nobody else nearby to talk to that would make sense. Unless, of course, he was talking to the horse. Then it clicked into place in Al's mind.

"My dad told me about you." Al pointed at the painting, "You're the knight, sir Caberdan."

The knight looked at Al, "I'm sorry, my dear boy, that doesn't seem to be my name. Now, if you were referring to the insurmountable Sir Cadogan, that would be me! The greatest knight to wander these portraits." His face fell as he looked at the two students in front of him and realized that they didn't know the name. "Other names you may have heard me by might be: The Great Sir Cadogan. The Magnificent Sir Cadogan. Grand 'Ogan. Defender of the Painting Royalty."

Emma and Al shook their heads at each name. Cadogan sighed exasperatedly, "Well at least let me know your names. That way I can know who doesn't know of me."

"Emma Goldstein."

"Albus Potter."

The knight did a little dance in the portrait, "I knew you looked like him! Oh I knew it, I knew it! You see, I assisted Harry Potter many times when he required need of me, in fact I often risked life and limb for him. We were such companions in battle, he relied on me in his most desperate times." Cadogan turned around to do something to his horse's girth straps.

"You remind me so much of-" Cadogan turned around to see that Albus and Emma had disappeared, his visor clanged back down over his eyes. "-Harry."

* * *

"Okay, he was weird." Emma told Albus as they walked down the staircase to reach their first class, Defense Against the Dark Arts, "He said he knew your dad, Al?"

Al nodded, remembering what his dad had told him about the knight.

"Yeah, my dad said that he was looking for a class one time and the knight rudely kept trying to help. Since then Cadogan constantly was annoying him and the other griffindors, even becoming the common room portrait for a time. That, as he told me, was absolutely painful to bear."

"Huh. Go figure."

Behind them they heard the thudding of horse's hooves on earth, and the yell of a mad knight. Al and Emma looked at each other, then sprinted for the class.

* * *

All throughout the class Professor Longbottom was catching their eyes, sending a silent message of support to the first years.

Then lunch was on its way.

And finally came the end of classes, and the beginning of the club time.

Albus, Emma, Scorpius, and Rose were there early waiting for others to arrive. Harry had them sit at the back of the classroom and once everybody had filed in to the classroom and taken their seats he introduced them.

"So, everybody, we have a few first years today that think that they are good enough to get into the advanced dueling club. One of them was brave enough to ask me if him and his friends could try out to make it in, and I liked that bravery, it befits him as a Griffindor." Scorpius sat up taller at that. "So what I suggested that they do is have an actual duel with some of you. If I think that they are good enough to do well here, then good for them, they can come. It's your job to test them, so don't go easy on them despite the fact they're first years."

The other students looked to the back of the class and glared at the first years, almost as if it was insulting them that first years could be good enough to actually be let in to an ADVANCED dueling club. When they did that, Albus and Scorpius took the time to size up the competition.

There were several girls in the back with them that could be disregarded as airheaded.

Fanboys and Fangirls along the center, looks like they're just here for autographs.

"A few bookworm types along the left, could be trouble if they know advanced spells." Al whispered to Scorpius. Scorpius nodded and looked opposite.

"Jocks on the right, don't look like they'd know a wand from a stick until one shoots out a spell, but maybe they'd be good enough with reaction times. Those guys are who we need to watch out for."

They spread their findings to the girls, who nodded and gripped their wands tighter, checking out the competition that Al and Scorpius had pointed out to them. Harry told the class that the first years would have one on one battles with students he chose, and anybody who wins a battle gets some chocolate. The first one up, as Harry told them, would be Rose.

Rose's fight was against one of the airhead girls in the back. The fight was over in a single spell, the airhead's spell. The airhead fumbled with her wand, looked up, yelled out "Stupefy", and realized all too late that her wand was backwards. Harry had a few other students revive her in a corner.

"I suppose that the first year won this one." He said, "By default?" The crowd didn't really agree with that until he gave her some chocolate and had her sit down.

Rose sat next to Al, "I don't think that helped us much, she defeated herself, I didn't show your dad how good we've gotten."

"It's all right," Al told her, "You still won. That's better than nothing."

The next fight was Scorpius' against one of the bookworms. The bookworm unleashed spell after unknown spell, but his form was sloppy and Scorpius dodged all of them with ease. He simply had to wait until one haphazard spell came his way, dodge under it, and shoot the bookworm with the _Impedimenta_ curse they'd learned the previous week.

Emma was next, Al sighed as his dad called on her, seeing how he left his own son for last. Emma went up against another one of the bookworms, this one much better in her form. The bookworm girl waited until Emma tried to cast her own spell to block, then strike. The bookworm girl's spell flew straight into Emma's shoulder, and Emma started to sprout horns from there.

Emma looked at the horns, looked at the girl, stood straight up with a condescending look in her eye, and blasted the bookworm with _Tantallegra._ The now dancing bookworm took time to cast a stopping spell on herself, but in that time Emma took careful aim and finished her.

Then came Al.

"So, finally we have Albus Potter." Whispers took through the crowd like disease, the teacher's own son dueling? This would be unfair, he's going to go up against the weakest member of the class. Al could tell that was what the club's students were thinking, it was obvious in their facial expressions. They all thought of him as a sort of teachers pet, but they didn't know his dad. Al knew that his dad was going to give him the toughest challenge he could throw, simply because he wanted to see how Al would do.

"You'll be fighting..." Harry paused, letting the moment seep in, "Jeremiah."

A jock stood up from the left portion of the room and cracked his knuckles. This one was a Ravenclaw despite looking rather bulky and slow. _Okay,_ Al thought, _this could be a problem._

The jock jumped up to the dueling platform, while Al climbed up on the other side. Jeremiah the Jock then stood in a stance that Al had never seen before, it was weird. The wand was held in a fist like he was about to brawl, but pointed at Al. His other hand was held in front of his body like it was prepared to block some sort of punch. Harry may have taught his sons dueling when they were younger, but it was only the basics, and this Jeremiah guy seemed to know easily as much as they did, if not more from how easily he held himself in his stance.

Al bowed like his father had taught him, and Jeremiah was caught off guard.

"It's polite to bow before a duel." Harry informed him. Jeremiah nodded, then did a short head bob in Albus' direction. Al took his own stance, which mirrored what his father had taught him, and the duel began.

Jeremiah started flinging spells instantly. Al, caught off guard, could barely do his best to block or avoid the barrage.

Two spells flew towards Al, one above the other, and Al hit the floor. Pointing his wand straight, Al then sent back his own spell, " _Impedimenta"_.

Jeremiah blocked that, then countered with stupefy. Al rolled, feeling the spell hit inches away from his back, and popped onto his feet. The wand in his hand seemed to fly faster than normal through the air and Al aimed a spell right at Jeremiah's head. The Ravenclaw ducked underneath the blast, bobbing like a boxer would in a match, and jabbing out with his wand like a boxer would as well.

Al realized Jeremiah's style, deflecting the spell flying at him. Al hadn't really taken time to have watched muggle brawling, but his grandfather: Arthur Weasley, had shown him on a muggle television once.

That was how Jeremiah fought.

Bob and weave inside of the spells, never staying still but dishing out punishment for each lapse in an enemy's concentration.

Al was almost punished for the lapse in concentration while he analyzed Jeremiah's posture, and could barely move out of the way of Jeremiah's trip jinx. Al felt the spell brush his hair as it went by.

"Expelliarmus!" Al bawled, but the dodge Jeremiah committed was easy, almost with contempt for the weak spell work. Jeremiah's head went behind his hands, and the duck was slow and painstakingly perfectly timed to narrowly avoid the disarming spell. As his eyes flew behind the fists, he didn't see the spell Al had sent a second afterwards into the ground at his feet.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

Jeremiah felt himself being lifted into the air, and he looked down to see that the carpet over the dueling platform was rising and carrying himself upwards. The carpet, as sturdy as it may be, rolled. And the Ravenclaw fell, straight into Al's Impediment Curse. Jeremiah froze, hitting the ground hard.

Al looked out over the crowd of students, realizing that he had just won the duel, and saw their faces with jaws dropped. Even his own father was surprised at the creative move.

"Al?" Harry asked, "When did you come up with that?"

"Two seconds ago."

"Well, you won. And, I think, that was so well executed that you and your friends do belong here."

Al went back to sit down with his friends. Emma looked at him in awe, "You forgot your chocolate up there." She told him, "And how in the world did you do that?"

"Remember when I accidentally lifted the entire charms class with one spell?"

"Yeah. You broke my collarbone."

"Well, I realized I have a little knack for charms. My dad talked to me one day, and he said that my grandmother, his mom, may be responsible for that. She had a knack for charms as well. All I need to do is ignore every brain cell telling me that people are watching and I may mess up, that's when I do well."

Rose leaned over, "Shhhhh. Your dad's teaching us something."

Their first club class had begun.


	16. A change in pace

The participants of the club were most definitely not duelists. They probably came into the class knowing nothing about dueling. They were sloppy. lazy, and oblivious to the minute details in duels. The only advantage they had over Al, Scorpius, Emma, and Rose was that they knew more spells.

Despite never having dueled before, Al was at least taught how to duel by his father. While Scorpius and Rose tried to learn and teach new and more powerful spells during their little pre-club practice sessions, Al was the only one who could explain just how a duel works and how to win one. He suspected that explaining a duel's inner workings was the real reason that everyone was able to get into the club. New spells were helpful, but fundamentals even more so. The other higher years in the club didn't have that fundamental knowledge, and Al's dad clearly recognized that as the lessons had started from the absolute basics.

"What is a duel?" Harry asked the entire club on Al's first meeting, "A duel is an expression of skill between two wizards, with only the better wizard being victorious. Duels are often the most basic of fights, but the most skill-intensive because of it. The better you can be at dueling means the better you can be at some other fight or just magic in general."

Harry taught the club from the ground up, explaining how a wizard duel works instead of the details of how a wizard _wins_ duels. Al even recognized the lesson back from when his father taught him how to duel, just this time he actually got dueling practice instead of just the theory.

The class, despite being taught by one of the greatest duelers, advanced at a sluggish pace. Those unwilling to do work, easily half the class, holding everybody back. But it advanced none-the-less. It took months of the club's meetings, and Al's father exasperatedly teaching idiots, but there was finally a break through with the club's less motivated students.

It came about when one questioned Harry about his duels with dark wizards, in particular: the pivotal duel with Voldemort.

"Sir?" A brown haired girl in the last row held up her hand while Harry asked for questions at the end of one of the meetings.

"Yes, miss Alya?" Harry said.

"What was your duel with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named like?"

"My duel with Voldemort?"

Shivers passed through the entire crowd of students, they'd heard the stories from their parents and grandparents, and some hadn't even known some family members because of the Death Eaters.

"Yes, sir, please."

Harry sat down on the dueling stage, he motioned for his friends to join him. They did so, sitting on either side to look over the club.

"Well, it's not just my duel that ended the war. Everybody here teaching you has defeated Death Eaters of some other dark wizard in a duel. Neville here eliminated powerful dark magic that was keeping Voldemort alive. I wouldn't have killed Voldemort even if I had hit him with _Avada Kadavra,_ and the same with Ron and Hermione's part, they eliminated some other dark magic. However, you won't learn about that dark magic here, we're here to teach you how to fight the wizards, not the magic. And that magic in particular is one of the most horrific pieces that anybody could ever do."

With every mention of Voldermort the entire club flinched, save for Al and Rose who had grown up with the name being spoken commonly. And Emma, for some strange reason.

"Well, my duel with Voldemort really wasn't anything to be proud of. It was Voldemort's own mistake that made it possible for me to win. He ignored ancient magic that was much more powerful than whatever dark magic he had. So, if you want to know about good duels, that isn't one of them. And the first time I dueled Voldemort I barely escaped with my life, by running away."

The club seemed surprise that Harry Potter was anything less than amazing even in his school years. Whispers spread throughout the entire club about that. But Harry continued like he couldn't hear them.

"Ask us individually about our duels and we'll tell you about them. We'll spread out somewhere along the dueling platform and you can walk up whenever you want after this club session and ask. As it is, we're over time, so you're all dismissed. Practice your stance and viewing enemy movements, those two skills can win a fight before it even begins."

And with that Harry motioned for his friends to go and stand somewhere along the dueling stage. Emma leaned in to Al, "Hey, I'm going to go ask your dad about his duels with Death Eaters." Al, being Harry's son, shook his head.

"There's better examples with his duels as the head Auror. Ask about those, he went through intense dueling training to get there, so after he became an auror he was a hundred times better at dueling. So get some examples from those times, he's regarded as an expert in all things Auror."

Emma nodded and walked up to the line that was gathering in front of Harry. There were massive lines in front of each of the teachers, but Harry's was most definitely the largest. Scorpius had gone into Harry's line as well, standing several people in front of Emma. It appeared as if, even though the club time was over and there had to be homework for everybody, none of the class had left.

Albus could hear the different stories emanating from both his father and mother, uncle and aunt.

"Of course I saved him, you think I'm just going to let my best friend die?" Ron was telling a sixth year Slytherin about the years when he was working as an Auror with Harry before he quit in 2000 to join his brother in Weasley Wizard Wheezes, "I went back. It was hell in that room, everything had been lit ablaze by the man, he just kept shooting off random spells every which way. Harry had dropped to the ground under a piano, not trusting himself to be out in the open. I happened to be behind the man, so I nailed him in the back with a hex and ran to Harry. We made it out before the building collapsed, but outside happened to be another one of the man's companions. Harry could hardly breath from the smoke, so I bowed to the man and we began. That was one of the most stressful duels of my life, constantly we-"

Ginny and Hermione had teamed up to talk about the battle for Hogwarts to a group of Griffindor girls, the girls who wanted Harry's autograph and really nothing else.

"So many had died, but those who were still up kept fighting to the death. You couldn't walk five feet without either stepping on wreckage or over a body. It happened to be that-"

And Harry was talking about each of his friend's heroics in great detail, only mentioning himself every few sentences. He made it seem like his friends had done all the work and he was just there at the right time. But everybody who walked up to Harry went away with an awed look on their face, like their respect for Harry Potter had been doubled by the fact that they were able to get five minutes of his time to just listen to something he thought they should hear.

In fact, everybody who walked away from the stories looked as if this club was the best thing to happen to their lives.

Al listened to his father closely when Emma walked up and asked about his Auror training.

"Ah- so you understand that's where the real duel training was."

"Yes sir, Mister Potter."

"Well, I had to go through twice the normal number of years in school. Thankfully I was able to take Auror training without the required N.E.W.T.S, that was there for anyone who was in the battle for Hogwarts. But they taught myself and Ron everything we could ever need. Let me tell you about the final test itself-"

Al walked out of the room, leaving everybody else to their chats with his dad and mom. He walked down the halls looking out the windows as he went. It was winter time at Hogwarts, and snow was covering the ground everywhere outside. It was beautiful as the sun had set and torches lit up the paths and grounds, reflecting their warming light off of the snow.

Two prefects were outside, arguing with a few Griffindors. Al recognized his brother: James in the group of Griffindors that were being argued with. As Al watched, James crouched in the snow. When he came up again he was holding a massive pile of the white, fluffy substance. The prefects tried to run, but James chased them down and dumped the whole pile on their heads. The two prefects came up sputtering out snow, reached down, picked up snowballs, and took aim. James ran back to his Griffindor friends, who were doing the same.

And snow-war broke out.

Albus watched this with muted interest, eager to see his brother get a face full of snow. He was not disappointed.

James' friends both ran towards the castle with snowballs falling behind them, leaving James out alone. The two prefects picked up snowballs, and James prepared to follow his friends inwards. He didn't make it far before the snow hit him square on the back of the head.

"ooh, come on James." Al whispered as James face planted from the force of snow hitting him. "That's just embarrassing now."

"Talking to yourself again?" A voice came from behind Al. He turned around to see a woman who was old enough to be a teacher standing there, blonde hair and root earrings.

"I'm sorry?" Al asked.

"Oh, sorry. I wasn't talking to you." She told Al, who finally recognized her as Luna, one of his father's old friends. She apparently recognized him as well, "Where is your dad, Albus? I wanted to come here and talk to him."

Al pointed to the club's room. Luna thanked him and wandered in, humming to herself the whole time. Al had seen Luna before, at the 2014 quidditch world cup in Argentina, where Harry had invited the entirety of Dumbledore's Army to join him in the VIP boxes. As he remembered, she'd worn a dress made out of national flags, and kept trying to put on a special hat, but her husband continually held her hands to stop her. Al didn't envy his father one bit for having to meet with her, she was definitely weird.

* * *

"Oh. Hi Luna." Harry greeted Luna in surprise as she walked in, humming what he recognized as the Bulgarian national anthem. She wandered aimlessly in the classroom for around five minutes without recognizing that he'd greeted her until the final couple of club students had left.

"Oh, hello everybody." She said. "I came here looking for a few magical creatures that only exist tamed in the Hogwarts Forbidden Forest, the thestrals. I decided to try and find you because I had heard you were here remaking the old Dumbledore's Army."

"Oh, we're not remaking Dumbledore's Army. Just teaching a dueling class." Harry said sheepishly, the class did remind him of Dumbledore's Army. "Ah, are you staying at the castle?" He asked.

She shrugged, as she did so the earrings shaped like her classic gurdyroots shook a little, making small circles in the air. "I got a room at the Three Broomsticks with my darling Rolf. I wanted to show him the Thestrals while we were here. I don't think he would be able to see him though." She added in a whisper, "He's one of the lucky ones who hasn't witnessed any... unpleasantness."

Ron, Hermione, and Ginny came to Harry's side.

"Well, then that's great that you're here." Ginny told her, "How's Lorcan and Lysander. Are they doing okay?"

"Just fine, they can't wait for the next couple of years to pass so they can go to Hogwarts as well. Lorcan, when we were last together at a family get together, accidentally charmed the pastries without meaning to. It was his first magic, and though the pastries didn't taste so good, I think that he made the filling into glue, we're all very happy."

The group of them continued catching up with each other for the next couple of minutes, before Harry suggested that she go back to her husband as it was getting dark and he may worry for her.

After she'd left, Ron stepped forwards to speak.

"So, do you think this is coincidence?" He asked the group. Ginny was the first to answer.

"I think so. Luna couldn't have known about our children and the Death Eaters. The Death Eaters are only concerned with us, they wouldn't be after her twins. But should we tell her?"

"No," Hermione said, "That could just put Lorcan and Lysander at risk, and Luna herself. We shouldn't risk it. And her husband wouldn't approve of it either, he wouldn't like to see Luna in danger."

Harry nodded his agreement with that, "We shouldn't tell her."

"Just another we need to keep this a secret from." Ginny said, placing her hand on Harry's arm. "I wish we could tell her though. She's still our friend, but that's also the reason why we can't."

They walked back to their rooms above the transfiguration hallway together, discussing how the club just might improve after that night's talks.

* * *

And improve it did. Every meeting after that had everybody pulling their weight and trying their hardest to improve. Even the girls who were there to try and sneak a lock of Harry's hair so that one of them could use the polyjuice potion for their own... desires, decided that while they were there they might as well learn how to defend themselves. Al and his friends advanced along with the rest of the club, feeling their skills grow exponentially.

And the club started to finally accept Scorpius. Many there had not liked his presence there, and there was always grumblings whenever he did well, but soon he was being treated like an equal. Most of them only recognized him as an equal during the duels, however, and outside of the class he was still the scum of the earth to most of the school.

Due to that, Scorpius started wanting to spend even more time in the club, he advanced faster than anybody because he would continuously stay after the club's meetings to ask Harry or somebody else about a new skill he should practice or what he could've done better that day. The club was his only place of equality.

A/N: so, just want to put out that every event I talk about that happens between the end of Voldemort and the end of the seventh book actually happened according to the canon J.K. Rowling put down in Pottermore. Search up the 2014 Quidditch World cup, it's actually pretty funny. A bunch of Inferi start eating the other mascots of the teams. Once again, I want to know just what I could do better at, and what you think should happen in the story or what you want to see happen. Leave a comment saying those, and as always: Have A Great day.


	17. Day Before Game Day

The first quidditch game was phenomenal. Slytherin versus Hufflepuff in the first match of the year. A close game the whole way, with both teams having superb chasers and keepers to keep the game within twenty points at all times. However, fifty minutes into the match both team's seekers saw the snitch floating at the bottom of the Hufflepuff goalpost. Both seekers were blurs of light as they shot for it, but a flippant comment from the commentator, who was Ravenclaw, about the Slytherin seeker's mother caused the Slytherin seeker to stop mid-flight and deliver a rather rude gesture to the commentator. While that movement may have felt good in short term, the Slytherin seeker was yelled at the whole way to his locker room by his team for blowing the game.

To Al the game seemed rather slow. Both of his parents were experts of the game, and after going to countless quidditch matches and quidditch world cup matches, he was also acquiring an eye for the sport. He still felt like he couldn't play in front of people, but he knew the game inside out.

Al's big brother, James, was on the Griffindor team as the seeker, just like both their father and mother was, and was nearly constantly practicing after classes. Every day he would run out of the common room with crimson robes on and a broomstick in his hand. Their dad had bought them both first class brooms, but Al wasn't allowed to bring his due to the rule involving first years and their brooms.

He remembered that his dad was allowed to have his broom in the first year, but that was only due to a few loopholes and string pulling from his head of house. Also he was a seeker prodigy, so that may have helped.

During flying lessons, Scorpius and Al would always be the ones zooming around higher than most other people. Scorpius told Al that he wanted to go onto the Griffindor team when he was in his second year, but Al felt like playing the game wasn't his strong suit.

Nobody else could fly as well as those two, however, and the other first years looked on in awe as Al and Scorpius would race each other to the castle walls and back, often skimming the grass or a tree.

"Hey, Al." Scorpius called out during one of those flying lessons after a particularly close race involving an apple tree and not crashing into a wall by centimeters. "Why won't you try out for the team? You're a better flyer than I am, and your father was a seeker prodigy who could've played for any team he wanted."

Al shrugged and leaned back on his broom, a rental that had received no maintenance in months from what it looked like.

"Well, you know I get nervous under pressure. Odds are that I'd fall right off my broom if everyone was looking at me. Also, I might be good on my broom, but I just don't have the skill to play any other position on the team. My dad had me training to play seeker, so I play it halfway well, but I'm still nowhere close to my brother or anybody else on the team in terms of teamwork and coordination on the field."

Al leaned down on his broom to let it start floating down to where the other first years were practicing zooming around close to the ground. As Al watched, Edward rammed himself into a tree on accident and a rain of apples fell from the tree to hit a few others on their heads. Scorpius went down and joined him, talking as he went.

"Fair point, but why not take up a manager position on the team? I've heard plenty of stories from you about your mother's games, or the Quidditch World Cup games you've gone to. So why not try coaching?"

"I- I never thought of that."

No team in Hogwarts had ever used a dedicated coaching staff. It was mostly directed by the team captain. Al didn't even know if coaches were allowed for the Hogwarts league, sure they were allowed in the professional leagues, but that was the big leagues.

"Maybe I should ask Professor Longbottom about that, he'd know something about it." Al said, "But I doubt that first years would be allowed to take up management in the teams seeing as how we aren't able to bring our own brooms or play on the teams."

The teacher in charge of the class blew the whistle for everybody to come back down to the ground and dismount. The class was over. Al and Scorpius let their feet skim the grass for a few feet and got off to put their brooms in the spots they found them in. The teacher nodded and said that when they'd turned in the brooms they could go, so Scorpius and Al waited for Rose and Emma to go back to the common room.

"Are you going to go watch the first Griffindor match of the year?" Emma asked Albus on their way back to the common room. Being a big quidditch fan, Al nodded.

"Uh, yeah I'm going to go. There's no way I'm going to miss a chance to tease James on how bad he flies." Al grew a little more serious, "Also, I really want to see how the team plays. I haven't gone to any of their practices to watch, so it should be a pleasant surprise, or a horrendous disappointment." He added. "What about you three? Would you be out there with me?"

Scorpius, Rose, and Emma's next statements proved to Al that they wouldn't miss it for as many chocolate frogs as his dad's face was on.

They were still on the topic of Hogwarts quidditch teams, when a painting yelled out behind them.

"Ho! My good sirs and ladies. Tis' I once again, The Undeniable Sir Cadogen!"

Al groaned, "Oh, God help us all." They could hear a horse's clopping in the paintings behind them, and in a picture of some famous wizard a knight appeared running alongside his fat pony. Scorpius and Rose looked at him in abject amusement, he had mud splattered across his leg's armor from where his horse had dropped him a few paintings back in a swamp. Al and Emma both looked at each other, preparing for the worst.

"Yes, Mr. Potter, I am back once again to see you to your destination. It is all just a favor for my good friend, Harry. He always relied on me, yes he did, oh yes he did. And who are these young friends of yours?"

"Cadogen, this is Scorpius and Rose." Al said while trying to avoid eye contact with the visor, pointing at his two friends in turn. Scorpius waved, and Rose had an expression on her face like she was positive he was reminding her of a story she read.

"Excellent!" Cadogen exclaimed, "So how is your time at Hogwarts coming along? Speak up now, this visor isn't the best for hearing!"

"The first few months of Hogwarts have been pretty good!" Scorpius said cheerfully, he apparently didn't hear the vehement whisper come from Al, who was saying that Scorpius shouldn't encourage the knight and that the knight was absolutely bloody insane. This response, of course, goaded the knight into going into a long winded story about his own year and how he'd defended Hogwarts against evil that nobody could imagine. After his story, Rose had a winning grin on her face, Al assumed that she figured something out and he pulled her aside.

"What is it? You've got a weird look on your face."

"Have you ever read the muggle story of Don Quixote?"

Al hadn't even heard of any muggle by the name of Don.

"Well," Rose told him, "It's about an insane knight and his misadventures. I think that whoever painted Mr. Mad Knight over there must've had some serious inspiration from Don Quixote. Quixote would charge down windmills, thinking that they were giants."

Al glanced at Cadogen, who was boring Rose and Scorpius with another story. He could picture Cadogen being that stupid, he nodded and told Rose that she must be right.

"But how could he mistake windmills for giants?" Al asked, "Giants have a distinct smell and brutality among them, windmills aren't doing any harm to anybody. Unless, of course, somebody ties another guy onto the fan blades. That would be messy."

"He was a muggle idiot. Those two words combined do not make for an entirely sane person."

 _And that_ , Al thought, _was some undeniable logic._

Al and Rose slowly snuck away while Cadogen was busy putting Scorpius and Emma into a mental hospital ward from his insane stories. They made it back to the common room without anybody noticing, and they were long into a game of exploding snap before Scorpius and Emma were able to clamber through the portrait hole. The two of them glared at Al, and Al finally looked at them and distracted himself from the game. The cards blew up in his face.

"yes?" He asked innocently, like he hadn't condemned them to cruel and unusual torture of the first degree.

"Dude... You... bloody... jerk." Scorpius spat out. He stormed up to Al and stood over him, looking down with not just fire in his eyes, but a firestorm. He was so ticked off that Al was surprised that there wasn't any smoke coming from his ears. "You left us to talk to him, for thirty minutes. I could hardly stand him for the first five minutes and you thought that you could use us as a smokescreen to get away with?"

"Yep. That guy is absolutely insane."

"Yeah, I know. I had to listen to his giant slaying stories for half an hour!"

Al could feel the anger radiating from Scorpius, until he finally started laughing. Scorpius laughed for about five minutes straight, no end in sight, until he started crying.

"I think I'm going insane." Scorpius managed out. Al reshuffled the cards from their last game and re-dealt the cards. Thankfully, James walked down the stairs and back into the common room before Scorpius could actually go completely insane.

"Hi, Al. Are you and your friends going to go to the game, we're playing Ravenclaw tomorrow. Come on out and support us."

Scorpius, as any wizarding guy would do, completely forgot any problem with his sanity and started talking quidditch with James. James didn't look so cool talking to the unpopular first year who was hated by most other students at Hogwarts, but he swallowed his pride to talk about the sport he loved.

Rose sighed, boys were all the same, focused on quidditch. Not that she had any room to talk, she had half a mind to get up and start lecturing James on how to better be a seeker.

The night progressed on with Scorpius talking to James about playing quidditch, while Rose, Emma, and Albus played more games of exploding snap.

And the next day was the first quidditch game for Griffindor house, bright and early.


	18. Game day

It was as if the whole school had been drinking liquid hype. Everybody was looking forwards to this game, Griffindor versus Ravenclaw, even the teachers. Nobody handed out homework the day before, they understood the student's excitement. The Griffindor team members were some of the first at breakfast, and ate through the yell fest emanating from the Ravenclaw table. Any time the Ravenclaws threw an insult, a Griffindor would respond in kind, flinging one of their own right back. Breakfast almost dissolved into a food fight once both teams had left to get changed, and it took a teacher from the teacher's table firing off a few bangs from her wand to get everybody to stop.

Albus and Emma were downstairs and ready for the insult war, and maybe even a food war, as it was beginning. Albus learned that Emma had no pleasure in yelling out insults in front of so many people, but she was perfectly fine in whispering the insult in Al's ear so he could roast the Ravenclaws. And her insults were quite creative; Al's favorite being one that related the Ravenclaw team to a bludger in how they both needed to be beaten by Griffindors with bats.

Al didn't yell out several of Emma's insults because he'd probably get a curse to the face if he said them. He drew the line at a comment about Ravenclaw mothers, that was dangerous territory for any of the four houses.

They went back upstairs once the teacher stood up and calmed the room down. Scorpius and Edward were just waking up when Albus walked back in, Scorpius was getting on his clothes and Edward was trying to get out of bed, but failing miserably.

"Mo- _yawn_ \- rning guys." Edward moaned out. Albus ignored him, Edward had lost his respect while chasing after Emma. Edward, greeted with stony silence, didn't bother them further and just tried harder to get up. Scorpius struggled to get on his robes, but a little help from Al got him through without needing a map, and he went down for some breakfast, leaving Albus with Edward.

Edward was rather... nervous being in the same room as Al. He fumbled while putting on his robes, and his wand slipped out of his hands so many times that he just decided to forget it and stuck the wand on a desk. Al looked at Edward, studying him.

"Edward." Al started, "Why do you chase after Emma?"

Edward fumbled with his wand again. "I-. Emma? We, uh, I. Ummm. I like her?"

"A dude doesn't just literally chase after a girl if they only like her."

Edward fumbled with the wand, set it down, and took a breath.

"On the first day of school she was crying. I don't like it when people are crying, reminds me of... things. I wanted to comfort her. But when I tried to get close to her, she pushed me away. I don't like that, I wanted to make sure that she's comforted."

To Al, that didn't sound like the truth.

"Chasing a girl doesn't make them comforted, Edward. That normally does the opposite." Al said skeptically.

"I like her. So what." Said Edward heatedly, he started to put more pressure in his words.

"That still doesn't sound right, Edward."

Edward had enough of Albus' skeptical words, he grabbed his wand and stuffed it in his pocket. "I don't have to deal with you." He spat out, storming out of the dormitory and leaving Albus alone. Al stayed there to think about Edward's actions and words until Scorpius came looking for him.

Scorpius walked into the room and waved for Albus to come with him.

"Hey, Al, the quidditch game's going to start. Let's go cheer them on."

Albus nodded, "Got it." And left with Scorpius. They made their way down to the quidditch pitch, meeting up with Emma and Rose on the way. Emma was hiding from Edward behind a tree when they found her, and Rose was in the library reading a few books her teachers mentioned. The quidditch pitch was extremely packed, but they found seats in the red end where all the Griffindors were cheering on their team. The teachers were set up in the middle stands, and at the other end there were Ravenclaw colors everywhere. There was one small Griffindor who didn't know what was going on, and had sat down in the middle of the Ravenclaw stands. He hardly lasted two minutes there before running to the other side of the pitch.

When the teams took the field, the announcer called their names out. Albus hadn't met the announcer, but he heard from his brother that the announcer was really funny and rude. He was also a Ravenclaw, and was going to be biased for his house. Thankfully there was a teacher right behind him, Professor Longbottom, ready to hold him back or keep the opposing house from jumping him and cursing his nose off.

"And heeeeere comes the Ravenclaw team: Bei-" Al didn't care about their names. He was so excited for the game that the only name he heard when the announcer called them out was 'Potter' as James took the field. James was a born seeker, inheriting the skills of both his father and grandfather, and was also the proud owner of the Firebolt x3, the newest version. James strode out with confidence betraying how nervous Al knew he was.

The referee told the two captains to shake hands, and both tried to break the other's fingers, and then they took their positions as the referee held the whistle up to her mouth and kicked open the box containing the quidditch balls. The whistle's keening noise filled the air and the match began.

James instantly shot upwards like a bullet. Al watched his ascent as he soared much higher than any other players, he didn't even show a fear of the height as he scanned the field for the snitch.

The Griffindor chasers instantly went to work, marking their Ravenclaw counterparts so that they could grab the quaffle as it flew up into the air. Despite their efforts, a Ravenclaw player grabbed it by shooting upwards to intercept the ball. The Ravenclaws sped forwards, lining themselves up to pass their way up the pitch.

But a carefully placed bludger from a Griffindor beater caused them to scatter and make a bad pass. One of the Griffindor chasers grabbed it and shot up the pitch, outrunning everybody, ducking a bludger, getting around the keeper, to score the first goal.

"Ten points to Griffindor." Said the announcer without emotion, "Smith puts one in."

The girl chaser, Smith, pumped a fist in the air as the Ravenclaw keeper retrieved the quaffle from the ground and put it back into play. The Ravenclaw chasers lined themselves up in a V, with the chaser with the quaffle at the front. A Griffindor beater launched another bludger, but they dodged. The chasers surrounded the Ravenclaw chaser, but to no avail; they kept up safe backwards passes.

But a streak of light burst through them to separate the chasers. James flashed across the pitch to the Ravenclaw goal posts, interrupting the Ravenclaw advance, when a bludger hit him in the side of his head.

Al groaned with the entire Griffindor side of the stands. James held himself aloft, but looked a little shaken up by the massive maniacal ball slamming into his skull. The bludger went careening elsewhere to be whacked by a Ravenclaw beater.

The game progressed very quickly, both sides were able to get the better of the keepers to score many times. Leaving the total score as Griffindor: 120, Ravenclaw: 180. The Griffindors were not very pleased with their keeper's performance, the only reason it wasn't 300 to 120 was because of the superb defense from the chasers and beaters and every once in a while: James.

James just couldn't get a view of the snitch, he always circled, never diving in like he would if that glint of gold caught his eye. Al had played against James all his childhood, and he knew just how James would play: If there's any semblance of a snitch, get to it faster than anybody else there. But he never dived in.

The Griffindor beaters were taking a massive beating as well. They were the targets for the Ravenclaw beaters just as often as the chasers, and it was mostly to the back that the Ravenclaws hit the bludgers.

Al could see just where the team could improve: passing and their keeper. The keeper needed the most work of all; he'd dive forwards towards the Ravenclaw player to let them rush around him and put it through the opposite goal, and their passes just kept turning over the quaffle. More than once would a rush from the Griffindors be stopped because of one bad pass or a dropped quaffle. The quaffle was landing in the dirt more times than it was thrown, they needed to work on that. The Griffindor captain seemed to notice their bad performance, so thirty minutes in he called time out.

The ref blew her whistle and the teams went to their benches to be lectured by their captains.

James didn't even bother with going back to the bench, he stayed out and looked for the snitch while the teams were talking. The captain seemed to realize this, so he left James be.

"And the game is back underway." The Ravenclaw announcer was saying. "It's been a game controlled by the Ravenclaws due to some very bad goalkeeping from the Griffindors, they really need to get that under control." He drew boos from the Griffindor side, Al joined in happily. Scorpius was watching the beaters closely, nodding his head whenever he saw something that he liked. The focus coming from him was almost palpable, and Al caught himself watching the beaters more and more.

The timeout seemed to do the trick for the Griffindor keeper and chasers. Their play was definitely improved, though it wasn't perfect, far from it. More than once was James required to blast up the middle and separate the Ravenclaws so a Griffindor play could make its way through to the goals. James was still searching desperately for the snitch, and at one point he seemed to see it.

He dove straight out of the air, shooting downwards faster than anybody's eye could track. The blur that was a Griffindor player and his broom pulled up at the last second before hitting the ground and shot for the goal posts. Al could see a glint of gold flying rapidly away from James, the snitch. The Ravenclaw seeker saw it too, or at least saw James race after it, and gave chase as well. However, James was too far ahead for the Ravenclaw seeker to catch up, and it was only a race between the snitch and James.

The snitch swerved around the goalposts, and James followed it closely, almost clipping his head on the goal but following without flinching.

This snitch had to have been faster than its predecessors, as it was racing, and almost beating, a Firebolt x3. It took all of James' skill to track the miniature snitch across the pitch, but nobody got distracted by his movements, the teams were still flying around like there was no change. The beaters were still smashing the bludgers at the other teams, though the Ravenclaw beaters took every opportunity to slam one towards James. The bludgers careened towards James, but he'd duck or dodge every one to continue his race with the snitch.

The Ravenclaw seeker watched James' path and tried to predict the area he'd reach. He flew forwards, ready to intercept James or the snitch, either one would've helped.

James shot right past the seeker as if he wasn't there, the Ravenclaw seeker not even seeing the snitch as it flew by. Minutes passed, and Al saw James tire on his broom. The Snitch went on its path again, sticking to a set path that seemed to work for it. James looked up, and took a risky move.

He turned on a dime and went along the inside of the turn. The snitch didn't sense his movement, it kept on its path, but James made his way closer despite being tired. When the snitch finally turned to get away from the approaching Griffindor seeker, James reached out to grab at the snitch.

James turned himself in mid air and skidded for a few feet before stopping. In his fingers he clutched the paper thin wing of gold, and its attached ball.

"All right!" He yelled out to the Griffindor crowd, who were yelling and screaming like there would be no tomorrow. Al joined in the celebration, jumping around with Scorpius, Emma, and Rose.

* * *

The after party that night was one of the coolest Al had ever seen. James must've been taught how to sneak food from the kitchens by Uncle George, because there were platters of food everywhere. The whole Griffindor team was at the head of everything, enjoying the limelight.

And the portrait door opened and an adult entered in.

"I missed this." Harry told the Griffindor house. "I used to be seeker for my Griffindor team. We had an after party every single time we won a game, one does miss those now that I'm gone from Hogwarts. Anybody saved a cream?"

Harry grabbed a cream from a nearby platter, "I remember" he said through a mouthful of cream, "That my friends charmed a platter of creams so that they turned the eater into a canary for a little bit."

The entire Griffindor house could only stare, a few bits of food fell from mouths in the crowd. Then James went up to his dad and asked him to tell a few stories about his seeker days. The entire house agreed that those stories were some of the coolest that they'd ever heard, and they all remembered them precisely the way Harry told them when they woke up the next day with full stomachs.


	19. Hook 'em out

Harry walked down the halls of Hogwarts the next day studying students, knowing full well that he won't just see the attackers from the forest out in the open as he never saw their faces. A Ravenclaw and a Griffindor, they attacked him and Ron, but they got away.

Faces passed by in blurs around him, hundreds of magical students walking to their next classes.

"Where are you two?" Harry mumbled, "They've got to be here."

It was during the passing period after second lessons and the students were all walking to the classes or hanging around and talking. Nobody looked any bit suspicious. And after the classes got back in session, Harry gave up on just looking for them. He walked back to his room. Ginny was sitting on their bed, reading a newspaper, when Harry walked in. She smiled and got up.

"Any progress?"

Harry shook his head, "No. Sorry. We need to do something to force their hand, something that'll make them come out. A lure."

Something about the way Harry said that made Ginny uneasy. Maybe it was the lure part, or the fact that she immediately thought of Albus when he said it, but there was something in Harry's voice that spoke of a risk.

"You don't mean-?" She asked cautiously.

"I don't mean that we'll use Al as bait." Harry told her, "There's no way that I'll ever risk him like that. I'm trying to think of something else, but I can't. That's why I came to you about this, I need your help on this plan. What's your thoughts?"

Ginny bit her lip, thinking about the Death Eaters.

"Well, what's their goals?" She asked, already knowing the answer, but wanting Harry to say it himself.

"They want Albus, Rose, and James to be killed. They want to see me try to save them, but fail, then kill me in my grief."

"Well. If that's the case, we need to give them an unbelievable offer."

Harry couldn't think of anything else, "I'm sorry, Ginny, but there's nothing else we can do but use Al."

The redhead nodded grimly, "If it has to be. But if you're doing this, then you're going to need more than just yourself out there. And no," She said when Harry opened his mouth to say something, "Ron doesn't count. You're going to need myself and Hermione to make sure that you don't make a mistake and get our son killed. And I know how skilled you are, but just because you're an Auror doesn't mean that you can just expect me to go along with a plan as daft as this."

"Fine." Harry said, "Let's go tell Ron and Hermione."

Ron and Hermione were not supportive of this plan, and Hermione phrased their argument perfectly.

"We're here to protect them, so we're just going to put them in danger?"

But they, after hours of talking and planning, agreed. All that was left was to get Al out where he could be ambushed, that was a horrible thought in Harry's mind as he tried to find Al after school.

Harry left his friends to first check the Griffindor common room, finding Scorpius and Rose talking about the last quidditch game, but no Al. Then came the grounds, which took forever to fully check as they were massive, once again no Albus. There were, on the grounds, several signs of James snogging another girl, but Harry pretended not to notice.

It took over an hour, but he finally found Albus. It was more along the lines of him stumbling across Al, as Harry had somewhat given up on finding Al that day and was instead thinking about other things. Al was walking back to the dormitory in the great staircase with Emma when Harry saw him.

"Al!" Harry called out, rushing down a staircase that was moving itself to the left to reach Albus. Albus looked up, "Hi dad. What's going on?"

"Could I ask for a little favor?" Harry said.

"Yeah, sure."

"Could you read this book for the dueling club, it's got a lot of things in it that would be helpful to you and your friends. Maybe you could find a nice quiet spot on the grounds and read it?" This was the plan that they had agreed on, to get Al out on the grounds in the open, distracted with something. It was Hermione's idea on the book, especially this book in question.

Harry mentally kicked himself, that sentence was so obvious that an idiot could see that he was trying to get Albus down onto the grounds. And Harry could see that Al recognized that, Al had a puzzled look on his face. Thankfully, Albus trusted that his dad had some sort of reason behind this, and told Harry that he would. Harry handed over the book, _Dueling from the Duelists,_ and thanked Albus for doing this, then watched as Al walked with Emma down to the ground floor of the staircase, looking at the book curiously.

As night began to fall, Harry kept a close eye on Albus, who was sitting underneath a tree with Emma, reading _Dueling from the Duelists._ Apparently Hermione chose the book well, because as Harry watched from his spot on the grounds, lights erupted from Emma and Albus' wands to illuminate the words as darkness fell. Ron, Ginny, and Hermione joined Harry soon after that.

"So what makes you think that the Death Eaters would show up?" Ron asked, "We don't even know if they'd do this."

That thought troubled Harry as they waited.

As the lights extinguished themselves from under Albus' tree, Harry saw shadows move in the darkness near the forbidden forest. Two of them.

"Well, Ron," Harry told him, "I didn't know if they would show up. But I don't think that they'd pass up such a great opportunity. Let's go."

Ron shrugged, "Got it." He pulled out his wand and followed Harry down the grounds.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny snuck down the grounds. Silently passing by Albus and Emma as they were walking back up to the castle. Harry stopped partway past Al and Emma, motioning for the others to stop as well. They did so, remaining invisible in the moonless night. The shadows were just walking up, within ten feet, when Harry rose to his feet.

"Lumos"

The two shadows yelled as their faces were illuminated by Harry's wandlight, and everybody got a good look at them. There was a boy and a girl, both around fifth year. The boy was tall and lean, more of a stick than anything, and the girl was of a medium build. Both had English characteristics.

"Stop right there!" Harry yelled, "What are you doing out here?" He approached with his wand pointed right at them, ready to stun if need be. "Answer me!" He said as they didn't answer.

The boy had faster reactions, he got out his wand to shoot a spell at the origin point of the light shining in his face.

"Stupefy!"

The jet of red light passed by Harry's head, inches away from striking him, but Harry didn't even flinch. He merely sent back his own stunning spell and the boy dropped to the floor unconscious. The girl watched her friend's head hit the ground like a rock and screamed, not even bothering to get her own wand out. Harry stunned her as well before the scream could travel past the forest or up to the castle. Ron and Hermione walked up behind Harry, looking at the two unconscious students.

"So these two are the ones who attacked Malfoy's kid." Ron said, "Look pretty wimpy to me."

Harry reached down to the boy and girl's robes and pulled out their wands to hand them to Ron. "They know their spells, they knocked you out if you don't remember."

Ron rubbed his head sheepishly, "Don't remind me." He said, "Oh. And you might want to know that Ginny is going back up to the castle to keep an eye on Albus still.

That was when the other shadows showed up from the forest, and all hell really broke loose.

A/N: sorry for the shorter chapter, this has been a bad week for me. I lost a good friend of mine to his illness, so I haven't really been on top of things lately. But I promise you that next chapter will be intense, and awesome, chock full of action. As always: I want to hear what you guys think in the comments below, and Have a Great Day. Dlahm out!


	20. From the Forest

The shadows went unseen as Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at the two students who were lying, unconscious, in front of them. The shadows snuck around the whomping willow, which was not more than fifty feet away from Harry's right., and stayed out of sight. Harry didn't notice them, he was too busy looking at the student's unconscious bodies, studying them.

"Ron, mind taking these two back up to the castle? Drop them off at Mcgonagall's office, we can't take any chances on them escaping."

Ron nodded and bewitched to bodies to start floating and following him, then walked off up the grounds to the castle. Harry turned and looked towards the forest, oblivious to the shadows near the whomping willow's edges.

He never even noticed them when they stood up to fire the first shot.

" _Crucio_!"

Harry, however, did hear the curse cry out from his right. He dove out of the way as the jet of light crossed where he was just a thousandth of a second earlier, tackling Hermione to the ground as he went.

More spells followed the first one, creating a maze of criss-crossing lights above Harry, brushing his hair as several got close.

Hermione rolled out from underneath Harry and started shooting stupefy into where she thought the spells originated from. Harry immediately got up and began firing off spells as well.

"Go! Get cover!" Harry yelled to Hermione, barely deflecting a crutacious curse that came from nowhere towards his face. "Protego!" cried Harry, drawing the attention as Hermione tried to run back.

There was nothing that could provide cover. It was a basic hill leading up to the castle, nothing to give an advantage, other than the numbers. Of which, Harry had no clue. There wasn't enough light to tell how many attackers there were.

Hermione found a ridge on the hill and slid down it to become a smaller target.

Spells deflected off of Harry's shield spell, bouncing off to fly towards the Forbidden Forest. Harry let the shield drop and he ran after Hermione, dodging jets of red and green light as he went.

"Hell," Harry said, sliding down the hill to get next to Hermione, "The second Ron and Ginny leave they have to attack. Just what we needed."

An explosion sounded off from over the crest, throwing dirt clods everywhere.

Hermione flinched as the explosion rang out. Lights started to turn on in the castle, voices could be heard from the grounds.

"What is going on out there!" Mcgonagall's voice rang out magically across the grounds. "I demand that you cease this racket at once and return to your dormitories."

Harry poked his head above the ridge and shot off a leg locker curse towards the shadows, a shadow fell down like it was hit, but somebody else must have performed the countercurse because there was no ceasing the constant spell fire coming from the shadowy mass.

" _Lumos Maxima!"_

Harry heard Hermione's spell, and saw the wand light illuminate the whomping willow and its surrounding areas to reveal over twenty black cloaked attackers shooting spells at Harry and Hermione. They scattered as the light revealed them, working their way all around the whomping willow and other portions of the grounds.

" _Stupefy, stupefy, stupefy!"_ Harry's spells lanced across the grounds to nail three black cloaks in their faces. The three fell, almost falling within the range of the whomping willow's branches, which were now thrashing about as it sensed the presence of humans nearby and wanted to beat the ever-living hell out of them.

Another explosion crashed on the grounds, this time closer to Harry and Hermione's cover. Grass was thrown on top of Harry and he shook his face to get them off of it.

Hermione charged another _Lumos Maxima_ and illuminated the black cloaks again. They were much more spread out now, covering the ground with their superior numbers to surround Harry and Hermione.

"Brilliant," said Harry, deflecting a stunning spell. "Absolutely brilliant. Why couldn't it just have been those two students. I don't like the idea of an army being here."

"It's not exactly your choice, now is it, Harry." Hermione told him.

"Should've been."

Harry launched a jet of orange light down past the whomping willow and the grass started to grow. It started grabbing itself around the black cloak's legs and pulling them down, annoying them while they tried to dodge Harry's deadly accuracy.

It was amazing to Harry just how much one highly trained auror could do in a fight, it never ceased to amaze him whenever he was in a battle. Often times the wizards would simply surrender once they knew that the Boy-Who-Lived was coming after them. But if a fight broke out, Harry's presence in the battle was worth a hundred trained law enforcement wizards. Combine the head auror with a girl who reads books on spells just for fun, and that was a combination that had plenty of risks when fighting.

Hermione cast fire from her wand tip to arc over the ridge and chase the black cloaks. It ignited the black coat's black coats, giving grief among their lines as they tried desperately to put it out. Their efforts were too no avail, as Hermione's fiery whip kept pressuring them and lighting them on fire, oftentimes darting in and latching onto a leg that was already latched onto by Harry's grass and bursting into flame.

But a wizard in his black cloak stood up from where he had taken cover and charmed the fire to rush back at Hermione as a jet of water might under pressure.

Harry shot water at the fire, creating steam in the middle where it connected. It didn't take long before the fire had completely died out in the air and Harry turned his attention back to the black cloaks. His grass trick had done its job, all but immobilizing the black cloaked attackers.

"What is going on down here!"

Mcgonagall strode down the grassy grounds with a vehement look in her eye. Harry remembered that look well from whenever he'd messed up in school, but now wasn't the time for a stern talking to.

Several black cloaks shot red light at Mcgonagall, but she deflected the spells like it wasn't anybody's business.

"This is not a battlefield!" She called out, "I demand that you go back to your dormitories and wait for further punishment."

A jet of green light emanated from the wizard who had controlled Hermione's fire, sailing over Mcgonagall's head as Harry launched a trip jinx at her.

"Sorry, Minerva. But I think that's where you're wrong!" He called out as the elderly witch hit the ground with a solid "Oof."

Harry rushed over to where Mcgonagall fell, launching spells as he went. "You need to get back up to the castle, Minerva. I don't know who they are, but they are aiming to kill. You need to get out of here. Maybe find Ron and Ginny for us."

"Potter? What is going on out here?"

Harry sighed, "They attacked Hermione and I. We think they're dark wizards. I don't think it's safe for you out here."

"Dark wizards?" Mcgonagall said scoffingly, "The spells that were in place when you were in Hogwarts have not been removed as of yet. I assure you, Potter, no dark wizards would have made it past the security."

A jet of green flew above their head.

"Yeah, tell that to them."

Harry helped Mcgonagall to her feet, then cast Protego while she ran as fast as she could back to the castle. Everybody who was outside started launching spell after spell at Harry, forcing him to keep up the charm.

The bubble of protection around Harry started to crack under the attacker's pressure.

Hermione popped up while the black cloaks were distracted, and shot an orb of electricity into the middle of them. Arcs of plasma shot away from the orb once it had landed, touching the black cloaks. Whenever a black cloak was touched, a smoke trail rose up from the point of contact and the black cloak shot away like it was a bullet fired from a gun.

Harry let go of Protego, going on his own offensive. He started to approach the black cloaks, going around the whomping willow to use its flailing branches as cover. Hermione watched his sides, providing cover spells whenever they were necessary.

The black cloaks still behind the whomping willow tried to stop Harry, but were no match for him in open combat. Any time a spell flew towards Harry, he either swayed out of the way or deflected the spell off to the side. The grass that he'd enchanted was still active, but wherever he stepped the grass let him go. The flank crumbled under Harry's one man onslaught.

And he wasn't alone. Hermione's pressure from the other side forced the enemies still standing to drag their unconscious allies back into the forest and retreat behind trees and rocks to return fire. But from the ramparts of the castle came a new fighter.

Spells fell on the forest from the castle, hitting with small concussive blasts like mortar fire on the forest. From the lights on the castle ramparts, Harry could see the two manes of red hair signifying the Weasley siblings doing their part in the fight.

Even more black cloaks fell. Leaving only a few remaining. But from that part of the forest, a jet of light like a firework rose up into the air and exploded into a mark only few would be hard pressed to remember, the dark mark. It was above the forest, twisting ever so slightly every few seconds. The snake entwining the skull. The fight changed.

From Harry's assault point, he could see more black cloaks join the ranks of the depleted first wave. More spells were being shot out of the forest towards Harry's position and Hermione's, and a few black cloaks tried to test their accuracy by firing towards the castle. Most shots that went towards the castle dissipated against the walls of Hogwarts.

"There's more of them, Hermione!" Harry yelled out, now hard pressed to defend himself, leaving no room for his own attack. It was as if an ocean of spells was beating down on Harry, and he could only choose which ones to dodge or deflect off to the side. His grassy spell also stopped working, the green blades returning to normal size and stopping their movement.

 _Idea time, Potter._ Harry thought to himself as he defended. He looked around desperately to find some sort of advantage, and the advantage came in the form of a pebble.

" _Accio Pebble!_ " Harry cried through the defense, and the small rock came flying to his open hand. " _Engorgio Maxima!"_

The rock grew as if it had some sort of growth serum thrust upon it. Harry let the rock, as it grew, act as a shield until it grew too big for him to hold. He let the rock drop onto the dirt and keep growing, it eventually reached the full height of the whomping willow, which allowed for some great cover for Harry.

He peeked out around the rock-now-boulder and shot a few spells into the black cloaks.

Hermione transfigured one of the trees into a bone and Harry tried replicating it to no success, the spell must've been special. But the manipulating the environment gave Harry a second idea, one that would've been much more useful if he'd figured this out at the beginning of the fight. He picked up another pebble.

" _Engorgio"_

The pebble grew larger, but not to the extent of the other pebble, it still was too heavy for Harry to hold though. It finished growing once it was the size of a headstone of a grave.

" _Wingardium Leviosa."_

The rock rose into the air and propelled itself at the black cloaks. One unfortunate soul didn't notice the projectile, as it was no spell, until too late, and the rock hit with a sickening crunch. The black cloak fell to the ground.

Harry picked up more rocks and spread them out behind his cover. Slowly and methodically he enlarged and launched the stones at the black cloaks until they realized that rocks seemed to be raining from above on them. It was a bad idea to fight rocks, rocks didn't have feelings and wouldn't care if you died.

The black cloaks retreated back into the forest, dragging their fallen comrades. Harry didn't trust them to be gone just yet, he stayed behind the cover for ten minutes after to make sure that they were good and gone before leaving his cover to search for anything they might have left behind with Hermione.

"Are you okay, Hermione?" He said as she walked up when he was casting revealing spells.

"I'm fine. A few scratches though, but nothing that should be too harmful."

She helped him look. With her help Harry was able to find three other black cloaks that their companions left behind, he bewitched them to float after him as they kept looking. There was fallen jewelry where people had hit the ground, parts of the cloaks ripped off in retreat, even a wand that somebody had dropped once they were knocked out.

The best, or worse, thing that they found, though, was another letter.

A/N: There we go, an intense action scene. I think that was worth the wait. We're all the way to twenty chapters now, and I wanted to individually thank everybody who had followed or Favorited or have written a review. This is going to be a list, so if you want to get to what else I have to say you can skip it. For all those who followed:

AjiraAkira  
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HP4EVERRRR  
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PsychoticSmartypants  
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I want you people to know that it's you who kept me wanting to write this.

To those who favorited:

Blackwolfhunting  
Create-gunner1209  
Heartwitch  
Iris Stardust  
Leyazah  
PsychoticSmartypants  
baronnis  
lotusalchemist  
mschwin

I want you people to know that it's you who made me feel like my work was appreciated.

And to those who have posted reviews on this fanfiction, whom I can not name for fear that it will get too convoluted to complete, I want all of you to know that it's because of you that this fanfiction has gotten better since the first chapter when we left off on where J.K. Rowling ended.

You are all very dear to my heart, and I want to thank all of you personally.

I want to personally respond to everybody's comments for this chapter, something that I've forgotten to do in previous chapters (My apologies to those who wanted a reply). And say that I have read every comment here and take what you say to heart. You've made my life a little bit better since I've started writing this story, and it is my hope that you will stay with Albus and his father to the end of this story.

Thank you, Dlahm17.


	21. Interrogation

"Speak up already!" Harry roared at the student. The student remained stony faced and silent, looking Harry down through stolid eyes. Harry groaned exasperatedly, he ripped out his wand and pointed it threateningly at the student, jabbing the wand inches away from the student's nose.

"Don't you understand what can happen to you for being in or affiliated with an attack on an Auror?" Arrest, Dementor's kiss, Capital trial and punishment; hell, I could even kill you here and the law would be behind me. You are in the worst trouble of your life, and there is nothing you can do to get out of this. There is irrefutable evidence, evidence you will never be able to get rid of. So start telling me why you were in the attack on my life, or so help me you will never see the light of day again from your cell in Azkaban!"

The student remained silent. Harry frowned and motioned for Ron to walk forward and take the student out of the empty classroom they were using to interrogate the students and back to the classroom next door, which was used as a holding pen for any captured in the fight. Hermione, Ginny, and a few teachers, including Neville, were guarding the room.

"So be it." Harry told the student as Ron walked him out.

As Ron closed the door behind himself, it was opened again to reveal a rather ticked off Minerva Mcgonagall.

"Potter," She said sternly, "What is the meaning of this? I understand your self defense, but I've been hearing rumors of torture from the other students. This may have gotten out of hand."

Harry explained.

"Professor, we are only interrogating your students. As it is, these students have committed several extremely serious crimes. They attacked a member of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Hermione, and they attempted to kill the Head Auror of the Auror Office, myself. They can face a lifetime in Azkaban for that, and I even have the authority to execute them without proper trial. Not that I would ever do that, it's just that this is the seriousness of what these students did. But let me stress that we are not, and will never be, torturing these students. If you check our wands, you will find that we have not cast spells since the battle outside, and the students can even be given Veritaserum and they will not say that we've tortured them."

Mcgonagall pursed her lips. "What are your grounds of interrogation?"

"I want to know the reason why these students attacked us. It simply could not be part of a prank, they were using lethal spells like _expulso_ and _reducto_. Therefore, there must be higher reasoning behind this attack. Not to mention that the attack was highly coordinated and the students were well trained."

She sighed, and pursed her lips farther, almost making them go invisible on her face. "Fine. But if I find one hair on their head singed, I will be forced to cancel your dueling class and you won't be allowed on Hogwarts property for your life. But," She added, "Off the records, Harry, I do trust you. I know that you have reasons for this, and so long as you follow the guidelines I've just given you, I completely respect your right to interrogate as an Auror. Good luck."

She left, and Harry went right behind her, walking left to the adjacent classroom so as to pick out another student for interrogation. Ron was whispering something to Hermione and Ginny while watching the students. Harry scanned the crowd of students. All four houses were represented there, all higher year students in their sixth or seventh years. Every student sat in silence, mouth firmly shut, but staring eerily at Harry like he was some sort of executioner deciding victims for a new form of death.

He pointed at a younger student in a corner, "That one." he told Ron. Ron nodded and politely walked over and asked the student if he would stand up and walk nicely or if he would be needed to be dragged or carried. The student nodded wildly at the standing up and walking nicely portion, eyes glistening with fresh tears, but mouth stoically shut.

They took him to the interrogation room and sat him down at a desk.

"I'm going to ask you a series of questions," Harry told the kid, "Answer to your best ability, and afterwards we will line up your answers to what your friends have given us. If need be, Veritaserum will be used to ensure your honesty. Your compliance and assistance may keep you out of an Azkaban life sentence if we find your sayings to be true. Please state your agreement to this."

The kid nodded frantically.

"Excellent, let's begin"

A/N: Oh my god guys, I'm so sorry. This is the shortest chapter I've ever done in my life. And I'm so sorry for it. The reason for my lateness (and shortness) is that I've got a new job and haven't been able to get time to type recently. So this chapter is meant of more of an update chapter for you so that I can tell you guys that I might be late on later chapters. I'm going to try my hardest to get these out on time, but it's going to be a lot harder to actually find time to type them out. Please understand, and don't come to my house with pitchforks and torches. Have A Great Day, Dlahm out.


	22. Interrogation's Information

"First question," Harry said, "What is your name?"

The student's eyes were frantic, betraying his silence. Tears streamed from the kid's eyes and his nose was like a mucus factory, yet he still refused to talk.

Harry sighed, they'd been trying to ask students questions for hours before this. None even tried to open their mouth. It was obvious that this was some sort of silence curse or charm, but they didn't know which one they needed to break. And it could've been something new that didn't have a counter-curse, or there could be some other form of spell that would be ready to punish the student if he opened his mouth. But without the student's voice, it would be difficult to figure out.

"Well, might as well try this out." Harry whispered to himself. "Nod or shake your head to indicate yes or no to my next questions." He told the student, "Signal your agreement."

The student nodded.

"Is there a reason for your silence other than the fact that we're interrogating you?"

The student nodded.

"Is the reason related to some sort of hostile magic to you?"

Nod. Harry smiled, they were making progress.

"Do you know who cast this magical restriction on you?"

Nod.

"Does the magic force you to be silent?"

Shake. The first negative response. Harry looked at Ron, "Well then, that rules out _silencio_ or some other charm restricting spoken word." He then addressed the student, "Are you physically capable of speaking?"

Nod.

"Does the spell do something to you if you talk?"

Nod.

"Does it kill you?"

Shake.

"Does it hurt you?"

Shake.

"Does it mark you?"

Shake.

Harry decided to shake his own head, the idea may have started off, but now it might have reached a dead end. Ron stepped forwards to the student from where he was leaning up against the wall.

"Does it tell somebody that you spoke?"

Nod.

"Good idea, Ron," Said Harry, "I wouldn't have gotten to that on my own."

Ron shrugged, "It was just a hunch. Keep asking your questions."

"Got it. So, do you know of any way to remove this magic?"

The student shrugged. Harry motioned Ron back to the edge of the classroom. "So I think we might need somebody else's help. I'm not trained to recognize spells' effects on such a deep level. They didn't go over this as well as I thought they would in training. I can't tell what spell it is from just yes or no questions. Do you remember Jim Rivers?"

"From the Department of Spell Identification and Regulation at the Ministry? Yeah. He helped me a few times on the Auror test with spell identification."

"Well," Harry said, "He owes me a few favors when I got him out of a sticky situation where his department forgot a few regulation aspects over the dark mark summoning charm. I think that now is as good of a time as any to call in those favors. I think that he'd be able to figure out what sort of spells are on that student."

Harry looked to the side of the classroom where a fireplace was.

" _Flagrate"_ a merrily crackling fire now lay in the fireplace. Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out a small vial of dust. He uncorked the vial and flung the dust into the fire, it turned a bright green shade. Floo powder.

From the now emerald fire cam Mcgonagal's voice.

"State name and reason for message."

It was a new magic Mcgonagall had told Harry about a few weeks ago before an Advanced Dueling Club lesson. A sort of Floo security and answering machine. Only teachers were allowed to use the Floo network for travel or talk, so the magic recognized teacher's, or official's, voices to grant access.

"Harry Potter, contacting Jim Rivers from the Department of Spell Identification and Regulation."

"Voice recognized as Club Faculty, Harry Potter. Access allowed."

And from the fire was a new face, one with a scruffy brown beard and a receding hair line. The man was in his forties and clearly wasn't expecting Harry's call.

"Wha-, Potter. How are you doing? Anything new?"

"Well, we could use a little bit of help here, Rivers. A student at Hogwarts has a spell on him that he's worried about. He won't speak for some reason because of the spell, but we got him to answer yes or no questions with his head. He's told us that the spell will tell somebody that he's spoken, we want to find a way to remove this spell so he can speak freely. Mind working on this?"

Rivers nodded, and let his head out of the fireplace. Then came through the whole way with his body. He wasn't very tall, Ron remembered, as Rivers stood up straight. He was a whole head and a half under Harry's height.

The ministry worker took a look at the student, taking out some reading glasses and putting them on. He started asking questions to the kid, who nodded and shook his head like he did for Harry. The questions were weird and random, including some about his breakfast or his friends, but with each answer Rivers nodded like he knew what was going on. He ended the questions with a funny one: "So, did you have any spells hit you recently?"

The student looked at Harry, who shrugged as he remembered who actually did hit the student with a spell, and nodded.

"Okay." Rivers told Harry, "I know what spell this is. It's just a modified Protean charm that goes one way whenever the vocal cords are used. Let me take this." The balding man stretched his limbs, pulled out his wand, and muttered a counter-charm under his breath. The kid flinched a bit as the spell washed over him, but then the student opened his mouth and coughed a few times.

"Geez, that was unpleasant." The kid said with a lisp. "Didn't know if I'd ever be able to talk again."

Harry smiled, "Thanks Rivers, I owe you one."

The fireplace roared green again and Rivers stepped into it, "Don't mention it." Rivers vanished in a flash of emerald.

"So, let's get on with this then." Harry said, turning his attention to the student. "What's your name?"

"Jamie Refien."

"Well then, Refien. First real question of this. What is your reason for attacking me and my friends? You do know that you can face a life in Azkaban for attacking an Auror, right?"

"I was told to fight. If I didn't then I would've betrayed my contract with them."

Harry sighed, "Did you really just use the word 'them'. You do understand how vague and stupid that sounds, right?"

"Yeah. Well then, I might as well explain 'them' then. 'Them' is a group of people who contacted me over the summer. They'd heard about me from my friends in Hogwarts. When they contacted me, they told me just how much money I could get from them for taking a vow. Enough to last my whole life. I still don't fully know who 'They' are, but I do know that everybody here in the group had taken the unbreakable vow to take orders whenever we receive them. The people who made me take the vow were wearing full black cloaks, but I was blinded by the money."

Jamie sighed, ashamed for his weakness, then continued.

"When you arrived at Hogwarts, I got a letter addressed as 'TH' saying that he was the one who I declared the vow to and that I should not go into the dueling club. I really wanted to go to the dueling club, I enjoy dueling and I am quite good at it, but I was forced to not to. I didn't know that the vow would require me to try and do anything to you, Harry Potter. But once that letter came out, my spirits for this year absolutely fell, I knew that we'd do something against you and this would not work out well for us. Please don't hurt me, I had no idea."

The student, Jamie sighed again, but this time less shamefully, instead being more resigned and melancholy. Harry felt pity for the kid, "Hey. You're fine. Your assistance here may have save you from Azkaban. But you still haven't answered all my questions, once the questions are fully answered, I'll tell you whether you can be let go or not. Next question: Do you know how many students have taken this vow?"

"At least forty or fifty of the higher year students. I met them when we were preparing the attack. All of them are above fifth year, there's no real distinctions or preferences on which house."

From his corner, Ron whistled, "So we barely captured ten or twelve of you? That's only one fifth of everybody you're working with."

Jamie nodded.

"And they all have to take those orders under punishment of death." He told Harry, who frowned.

"Thank you for your answers," said Harry, "Ron here will escort you back to the other room, you are not to tell anybody of what I asked you or what you said. I will try to make sure that you are not taken to Azkaban or receive similar punishment so long as you follow that."

Ron and Jamie went back to the other classroom. Harry took out the letter that the found at the end of the battle.

 _Boy who Lived,_

 _You must keep a better eye on your son, he's all of on his own. If you're reading this, then we have attacked him, and most likely killed him. Enjoy the funeral, I'll be there._

 _Torturer's Hand._

A/N: I'm still so embarrassed by how short the last chapter was, and I'm so sorry for how pitiful it was. I've got a new job and it's been so hard to find time to type out stuff. BUT! I'm starting to get ahead of the chapters, so now I'm writing ahead of time so that I will have the chapter ready a few days before it's needed, now you won't have to worry about chapters being late. As always: tell me how I'm doing, especially if you noticed things in the chapter that don't make sense or that I messed up on, I love to hear from you guys. And Have A Great Day, Dlahm17 Out!


	23. Coming of Winter

Everyone was saying that Albus' dad had taken the missing students and had been torturing them for the last week, the rumor spread to nearly everybody in Hogwarts in hours. There was even an extreme rumor floating around that some of the students had died from the Crutacious curse's torture. It didn't help that a large bunch of students had been missing for a week. Albus didn't believe the rumors, it was his own father, and nobody knew his father better than him. Didn't stop mostly everybody from ruthlessly accusing Albus and Harry behind their backs, and in some cases to Al's face.

"Your dad has been torturing my best friend for a whole week, Al! How can you still defend him?" Edward, of course, was yelling at Albus in the common room. Scorpius stood at Albus' side and he stepped forward to stand between Al and Edward.

"Where's your proof?" He asked, "You say this, but you don't have any proof, where is it then."

"I don't need any proof, Scorpius Malfoy!" Edward spat out Scorpius' last name like it was a curse, "My friend has been missing for a week now! What other proof do I need to accuse the one guy who can commit, and has unlimited access to, the crutacious curse!"

Recent times had allowed any auror to have access to the crutacious curse without fearing repercussions, that's what Edward was apparently basing his theory on.

Albus scoffed at Edward, showing his true disgust at the fanatic's antics.

"Are you kidding me, Edward? That's the dumbest, most insane, theory I've heard yet about the missing students. There's hundreds of theories floating around the school right now, and you choose to believe this one? My dad has killed or contained more dark wizards than any other auror in history, surpassing the records made by Alastor Moody, and you choose to think that he's torturing students who are still in school? And where did you get this friend from, all the students who are missing were from their highest years. They wouldn't be caught dead around us first years. The better theory on their disappearances is that they are sick, or injured."

"They aren't in the hospital wing, Al."

"Who said that what they have isn't completely infectious?"

Edward sighed, "You just don't want to believe that your father can do bad things. You don't want to know just how bad he has the possibility to be. He is an _auror,_ if that doesn't mean he knows more dark magic than everybody else in the ministry, Hogwarts, and every other wizarding school on this planet, than I will eat my wand. You have no proof against me, I have proof against you that you refuse to accept."

It was Rose's turn to step forward, "You must be joking. I have grown up with Harry as my uncle, and I have never seen him show even one iota of darkness within him. He eliminated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named from existence using nothing but a disarming spell. He wasn't forced to use a dark spell to remove a dark wizard, he didn't even use a spell that could be lethal, all he did was disarm him."

Edward held up his hands in his own form of disgust, "I'm going to the headmistress about this. Your dad is going to be kicked out of this school before you can even say auror. Mcgonagall surely wouldn't stand for him torturing, and killing, students."

Edward left the common room, striding confidently to where he knew Mcgonagall's office was.

"What a git." Emma muttered from where she was seated, "I can't believe that piece of frog spawn was trying to ask me out."

Albus looked at her, "Why didn't you back us up against him? He'd at least listen to you, he likes you."

"He never listened when I told him that he needs to stick his wand someplace else before I even think about dating him, what makes you think he'd listen to me now? And anyway, you kind of persuaded him to back off, he hasn't pestered me for months now, thanks by the way."

She nodded and stood up, stretching. Al looked outside, it was starting to become winter, the trees had almost lost all of their leaves and it wasn't going to be too long before snow was hitting the ground. It was dark out on the sunday night, it was almost time to go to bed so that they could wake up early for their next day of lessons. Out on the grounds several couples were snogging, thinking they were invisible, but in fact illuminated by all the lights coming from the castle and the moon's own light.

Emma looked out the window Albus was looking out of, "Wonder if one of those couples are your brother and his new girlfriend?" She asked Albus. The question quickly drew Scorpius and Rose's attention, and they tried to spot James out on the grounds.

Al shrugged, "Well then, let's see. _Lumos_."

The beam of light shot out from Albus' wand and spread itself on the ground. He maneuvered the arc of light around to try and figure out which couples he could recognize. There were a few fifth years out there, and one with a particularly noticeable face.

"What the bloody hell are you doing up there!?" James screamed out from where he was interrupted by the beam of light blinding his girlfriend, "Can't you see that we would like some privacy!"

Emma, Albus, Scorpius, and Rose all fell to the carpeted floor of the common room laughing. Albus could feel a massive pain in his ribs and a shortage of breath by the time he was able to stop laughing. He stood back up and shone the light on the couple again, which garnered the same annoyed response from James. Several other couples outside started chuckling and laughing at James' discomfort, they all knew of the Griffindor quidditch player and everyone enjoyed seeing him squirm. Emma looked purple in the face, Rose had tears streaming out of both eyes, and Scorpius was literally rolling on the ground.

Albus let the light go off for a bit, waited ten minutes, then brightened it right back on James.

"That's it!" James cried out, " _Expelliarmus!_ "

The spell arced upwards but splashed harmlessly against a nearby window.

"You're losing your accuracy, James!" Albus shouted out playfully, "I could've totally hit me from there!"

"Damn it, Al!"

Al collapsed again, laughter overtaking him, he was barely able to stand up for a third time and choke out a belated "Wait 'til I tell mum!"

He didn't know if James heard him or not, but once he heard a choked cry come from the grounds, he knew that James had heard. When Albus looked up from his tear filled eyes, James was gone from the spot.

"Oh, crap." Al said, knowing that James was probably on his way to give a hundred noogies and make him bald. James had cast a spell that caused all of Al's hair to fall out and crawl along the floor like some sort of spider in the past, it was pretty freaky to watch a hairy, limp, spider crawl along the ground. Albus looked around the room for somewhere to hide, fast. James knew the passageways of Hogwarts better than he knew his own home.

Emma, Rose, and Scorpius were all still laughing, and Albus wanted to join in, but he knew that it would mean instantly losing his pride from noogies.

Fireplace? No, he'd get burned.

Table? First place James would look.

Back to the dorm rooms? Then James would have free reign to trap him there.

Where to hide.

Al looked to both sides, desperate for something to save him from this humiliation. And greeting his eyes was his wonderful big brother. The fireplace was looking a lot more like a good idea now.

"Hey there, little brother." James said with a funny grin.


	24. pranking has its cost

"Oh yeah, hey there James. How's it going?" Albus said, giving James a little smile. The smile felt wan to Al, but he tried to project it confidently. This didn't work.

"Well, I was talking to a really nice girl outside until I was nearly blinded, do you know who might've done it?"

Al grinned up at his big brother, to his side, Scorpius, Emma, and Rose were all clutching at the stitches in their sides from laughter. Tears ran from their eyes as they watched James stand above his little brother. "Somebody interrupted your date, James? Aww man, it looks like they won't enjoy the aftermath too terribly much, everyone knows how good you are at spellwork. Any-who, I'm just going to-." Al tried to slink to the side and run around James, but James grabbed Al's cloak by the back, not even bothering to try, just doing.

"Yeah, I think that they should have an eye for an eye, don't you?"

"Definitely, big bro."

"Well then, I don't know when you'll be expecting me to play a similar prank on you, but be sure that it'll be coming."

James let go of Albus' cloak and laughed at Al's pale expression. The smile was gone from Al's face, having disappeared when James grabbed Al's cloak, instead replaced by the whitening of his face. Scorpius took one look at Al, and fell to the ground a second time, laughing like a maniac.

By this point, everyone in the common room was looking at the proceedings. Many were sniggering or pointing at the pale Al. Emma and Rose were hanging over each other, trying to contain the laughter.

James walked up to his dormitory, high fiving several other Gryffindors on his way up there. Al smiled again, his brother was known for being the best prankster in this generation, mostly because he was helped out by Ron and George with their amazing products and knowledge. But he wouldn't prank Al, Al was his own brother, somebody who stood by James through thick and thin and never wavered. Unless he counted all the times that James was in trouble from their parents, that was when Al decided that his resolve could waver for a little bit. His mom could be pretty scary sometimes.

"Okay, James, see you later then." Albus called out to James' back. He turned to the still laughing Scorpius.

"Aw, come on Scorp. Can't you see that I could've used a little back up right then?"

Scorpius was barely able to contain his laughter long enough to speak, "No, I think that you had that well under control. Your brother was scared stiff. Right Emma?"

"Yep, totally Scorpius. I mean, did you see how James ran off after Al just gave him a little parting? _Okay, James, see you later then._ That had James just running for his dorm, imagine how fearful he is of Al on a daily basis. You must be really scary, Albus."

Albus sighed, and placed a hand to his forehead. "You guys are hopeless." He said. Another look around the common room showed Al that most people were still sniggering silently at Al's plight, clearly they expected James to be following up immediately with a prank. Al smiled confidently this time, James wouldn't prank his own brother.

A/N: God guys, I'm still so sorry about the sudden drop in chapter quality, I'm really trying my hardest to get these out to you, but my job is now in the way. I'm trying my hardest, and there will still be plenty of really big chapters that are up to my usual quality of work, but right now I need to get used to this new job and how I'm going to have to work. So expect the chapters to still be on time, they might not be as long, but they will still be coming. I'm not going to forget about all of you out there who enjoy this story.


	25. Prankster's Paradise

Harry knew about James' plan to prank Al, how could he not, it was all the school seemed to be talking about. Though whenever one of the Griffindor first years came close, the school was quiet about it. But, in fact, Harry even advised James to go all out so long as he didn't kill or injure Al when James went to Harry asking for a little permission. But James was also warned that if Al came to Harry for help constructing revenge, he would help. Harry wasn't entirely sure that Al would take revenge, he would more than likely just get flustered and not bother, but Harry had to act at least a little bit like a parent.

Thankfully, James held in his urge to prank to the winter break when the first snow hit. Of course he didn't do it near Christmas (Harry got a ton of presents from student fans and friends) or in the weeks before or after.

But the second everything was set up (He showed Harry so that Harry could approve it as non-lethal), James made his move. Though not before Ginny tried to stop them by asking Harry to tell James that there shouldn't be any pranks between family members. Harry refused, citing the Weasley twins as examples against that, and Ron backed him up on that matter, saying that his brothers actually were a welcome distraction no matter how annoying they were.

Albus woke up completely ready to enjoy the last couple of days on the break. Maybe go outside and have a snowball fight with the other houses. He went down to the common room, looking for his friends.

Instead of Emma or Scorpius, James was downstairs waiting for him near the portrait of the fat lady.

"Hey, Al, good morning."

Al was completely oblivious to the wolf's smile on James' face. He smiled back, "Good morning, James. Is anybody else up yet?"

"I haven't seen anybody else up yet, but can I talk to you before you go have breakfast or something? There's a couple of things I need to say."

Al agreed cheerfully in less than a second. James was a little shocked on how trusting his little brother was, maybe the prank will help him be a little more streetsmart. _See,_ James thought, _pranks do help people out in more ways than making somebody laugh._

James took Al outside the castle, walking with hands stuffed in his pockets, Al walked a foot behind him. They walked a whole lap around the castle (James used this time to take quick glances at each of his traps) in silence. Finally, James turned around where his first trap was.

"Al," he started solemnly, like somebody had just died, "You've got to get a hold of yourself, man. Just cut it out. Stop it."

Al was puzzled, he looked at James in confusion. "What? Have I done something wrong, James?"

"You've been really cold lately. Always with a chilly attitude and body language. Giving me the cold shoulder."

At the last word, something cold and wet hit Al's shoulder. Al looked over his shoulder to see snow dripping down his robes. Before he could turn back to look at James, a ton of snow smashed into the back of his head. He could feel the snow dripping down his back and into his pants.

"HOLY HELL, COLD! COLD! COLD!" Albus cried out, shaking his pants to try and get the snow out. The second his pants were not a popsicle, he looked at where James was. James was running and laughing. Al smiled playfully, if James wanted a snow fight, he'd get one. Albus chased after James, sprinting as fast as he could to try and get back at his big brother.

James jumped over a ledge of snow and disappeared over the other side. Al jumped after him and landed in the soft snow on the other side. The snow below his feet then disappeared as he hit it, some sort of magic James had set up, no doubt, and Al fell through the pseudo-snow to go waist deep in slush.

"AW COME ON, JAMES! YOU'RE FREEZING MY JUNK OFF!" Al yelled at his brother. He heard James' laugh from the distance.

"COME AND GET SOME REVENGE!"

It was a trap. It was obviously a trap. Al knew that the whole time. Yet… fighting blood won out and he jumped out of the slush thinking to hit James with a snowball, only to get nailed himself with a snowball to the face.

Al brushed the snow out of his face, reached down, and got himself some ammo. When he looked back up, he couldn't see James.

That was when he was assaulted on all sides by a literal ton of flying snow. Snowballs were flung at him from every angle, hitting every single part of his body until he was buried up to his waist in snow.

"YOU'RE KIDDING ME!"

James heard his brother's scream of discomfort and winced. At this rate, Al would wake up the whole school. He peeked over the pile of snow he had made specifically for this prank and tossed a snowball at Albus. Success, the snowball landed right on Al's mouth, muffling the poor first year with a mouthful of snow.

Al spit out the snow and tried to free himself from his icy prison. It took a lot of wiggling, but he got out and started chasing after James again, launching snowball after snowball at where James was throwing his own snowballs. Al actually hit James a few times in the gut, and his confidence grew. He ran towards James' fortifications with two snowballs in hand.

That was when he saw that James had his wand out and was mouthing numbers counting down from five.

"Oh, crap." Al said, too fast to stop.

" _FLIPENDO_!"

James cast the trip jinx right as Al walked over his next trap. Al's feet seemed to get tangled in the air, and he crashed head first into light snow. The snow then piled even farther onto Albus' head, trapping him with his head in the snow.

 _Phase one, done._ James thought, and walked towards Al to free him.

"Camoo geff me ouff?" Al asked, voice muffled.

James sighed. "Sure, little bro. _Wingardium Leviosa_." The torso and legs of Al slowly lifted his head and arms out of the snow.

 _SMACK_

Al launched the snowball he had been making while underneath the snow right into James' eye. James blinked snow out of his eye.

"Okay, I came over here to get you out… but I think that this warrants a little more snow up your shorts. Has Dad taught you the jinx that hangs people by their ankle yet?"

"NO, DON'T DO IT JAMES!"

" _Levicorpus"_

"DAMN IT!"

James looked at where his brother hung in mid-air from his ankle. "You're quite funny when upside down."

The look on Al's face was one of complete horror. He watched as James gathered up a pile of snow, then pointed his wand at it. " _Wingardium Leviosa."_ The snow slowly rose up in the air.

"No, you wouldn't do it, James. Mum would kill you. Dad would kill you. In general, you'd be dead."

James released the spell.

* * *

Harry woke up to the fresh screams of horror, as Al tried to get all that snow out of his robes. "So today was that day… let's hope they don't kill each other." And went back to sleep.

* * *

"You know something James," Al said, "You really suck." He was now sitting on the snowy ground, trying to get the last bit of snow out of his robes for what felt like the hundredth time already that day.

The smile that Al saw on James' face was one of pride. "I know, I try." He said, "Now if you hadn't have given up and cried uncle right after I let you down, you'd still be getting pranked. Do you want me to show you what would've happened? I promise that you won't be the target of the prank, I just want to show you and watch the horror on your face."

Al didn't believe him one bit. "No, I think I'll pass on this one." And James smiled wider, his brother had learned.

 **A/N: How long has it been since I uploaded a chapter to this? almost two and a half months. Holy crap, it's been waaaaay too long. I'm super sorry for that, I just have been in a funk for writing chapters for this story for a while, and whenever I tried to write one out, life got in the way. But now I'm committed back to my schedule. You'll be receiving Al's antics at Hogwarts every saturday from now on, and there will be nothing to stop me. It will take me a bit to recover to how long the old chapters were at, but we'll get there. I'm super sorry for not uploading before this just to update you guys that I haven't forgotten all of you, but don't worry, we'll have chapters every week now, and nothing will stop me. Drop a comment saying your thoughts, I always love to hear from you readers, and if you like what you see, follow or favorite as you deem fit. Every ten chapters I honor those who have done so. So as always, Have A Great Day, Dlahm OUT!**


	26. finals

"Oh these were the greatest times of the years we were here." Hermione said, passionately watching students look through their books with the franticness that only came with finals. "Remember it all?"

"Yeah," Ron snorted, "I remember hours of tears as I groveled over the tests. My hand cramped so bloody much cause of how much homework was assigned. Half of our year had nervous breakdowns."

It was the final months. The final's months. The time every student feared.

A time Harry feared as well.

"It's been almost the whole year. They're going to try and kill Al one more time at least." He was always saying under his breath whenever he got a chance. "We still haven't figured out anything, the trail is cold. Come on, we have to figure out _something_."

He was getting desperate, they all were.

Al still had no clue about what was going on, revolving around him. He often noticed his parents start to tail him after classes… but that could mean nothing, he knew how his mom was anyway. And finals were more concerning right now than worried parents.

It was only a month and a half away from the finals at this point, yet the teachers acted like they were only two days away from walking into the exam rooms. Al saw James walk into the common room with a stack of homework that went above his head. It was quite funny when James walked into the couch and papers flew everywhere.

Rose seemed to be pretty happy, she inherited that from her mother, but Al, Scoprius, and Emma were all slogging through these weeks with the sole function of at least getting a passing grade on the finals. Just get it over with.

One night, Scorpius even fell asleep at a study session Rose made them all do. When we woke up the next morning, the words had all peeled away from the book, and had printed themselves on his face. He hadn't the foggiest clue why everybody was chuckling at him that day.

By the time finals days finally showed up, everybody was legitimately glad that they were here. It meant that there would be no more days of pain, poring over books trying to learn random facts and goblin's rights dates. The first years walked out of their last exam room (transfiguration) with smiled of relief plastered all over their faces. They wouldn't have to worry about schoolwork until next year. Other than their summer homework, at least.

"Oh man," Scorpius yawned, it was a beautiful day out and they were relaxing by the lake. "I'm glad that's over."

"How can you say that?" Rose chided, playfully pushing Scorpius' shoulder. "Now we've got to wait a whole year before taking finals again."

Emma stood up, "Rose, you're absolutely insane. That's somewhere along the lines of blasphemy for students to say."

"My mom used to say it all the time."

Al shrugged, "Well we all know you're weird. Now we know where you got that from." He said, earning himself a friendly slap on the arm. "Well, either way. This year is pretty much done. Now all that's left is to ride out our classes."

The four friends smiled and relaxed, stretching out like cats in the sun.

"Enjoying ourselves?" A voice called out from behind them. Al opened his eyes to see professor Longbottom standing there in his gardening clothes.

"Yes, professor." Al told him right away.

The professor sat down behind them and enjoyed the warmth. "It's a beautiful day out, isn't it? Birds are singing, flowers are blooming. On days like this, kids like you should be enjoying it." He opened one eye, "Albus, did you know that your father, twenty-five years ago, was about to do something crazy. It was a day like this and he had learned about a little item called the Philosopher's Stone. The stone itself was anything a human would ever want. It was able to turn lesser elements to gold and secrete the elixir of life… a serum that would keep you living forever. Your father had learned that somebody was going to steal this stone, so he set out to stop them. In the days leading up to that, he had this sort of… manic attitude."

Al had indeed seen this attitude before, whenever his father was on a serious case and was about to break it wide open and capture some criminal.

"He wouldn't let anything stop him from keeping Hogwarts safe. Not even me. He cursed me out of the way to protect us all. He would do anything to protect all of us. Now, recently have you seen your father, Albus?"

Albus shook his head, "No, professor. I haven't. The only times I see him, are passing by him in the hallways."

"The manic attitude is back, Albus. He's onto something, something big. I think that there's been something going on at this school, and he's been on top of it. Why else would he bring in the old gang, there has to be something going on. Do you have any clue what's going on, Albus? I need to know so I can help your father, just like old times."

Once again, Albus shook his head. "No, professor. If I knew, I'd tell you. But I've got no clue."

Neville Longbottom sighed, "Well, something is bound to happen in the next few weeks. If you ever learn what's going to happen, tell me."

And off went the professor.

A/N: yeah, remember when I said that I would return to my regularly scheduled chapters? Well... life gave me a knee to the nuts. I've been too busy to work on these. I'm creating two video games at the same time, I've been commissioned to write a legitimate book, I'm playing and coaching hockey, I've got a regular job now, I'm a junior in high school, going to colleges. It's been tough, but I will keep writing. Have a great day!


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